Rural banks urged to assist youth groups, co-operatives
Stock Exchange inches up but performance still very poor
Rural banks urged to assist youth groups, co-operatives
Amuana Praso (Eastern Region) 28 Dec '99
The Birim North District Chief Executive, Prince Yaw Danso, has urged rural banks to channel part of their resources to youth groups, co-operative societies and micro-enterprises to reduce the effect of poverty in the communities.
Prince Danso made the call in an address read on his behalf by Mr Matthew A. Tay, a deputy district co-ordinating director, during the seventh annual general meeting of the Mponua Rural Bank at Amuana Praso.
The District Chief Executive asked the banks to also empower women and the disabled, who are the most vulnerable in the society.
While lauding the operations of the bank, Prince Danso cautioned the management and board members not to create room for administrative lapses and erode the trust customers and shareholders have in them.
Presenting the financial statement for 1998, the Board Chairman, Mr Emmanuel Owusu, said the bank made a pre-tax profit of 24.9 million cedis in 1998 as against 12.8 million cedis the previous year, to reduce the accumulated losses from about 90.5 million to 69.7 million cedis.
No dividend was declared in view of the losses.
Mr Owusu said shareholders' equity increased from 14.2 million cedis to 30.9 million cedis during the year under review.
He said deposits also rose from 699.9 million cedis in 1997 to about 1.2 billion cedis last year.
Mr Owusu said the bank purchased 2.6 billion cedis worth of cocoa last year as against two billion cedis in 1997.
In the exercise of its corporate responsibilities the Board Chairman said the bank spent 3.4 million cedis last year, and as at November this year, about 6.2 million cedis had been used to assist the communities in the catchment area.
These were in the energy, education, sports and health sectors.
GRi../
Stock Exchange inches up but performance still very poor
Accra (Greater Accra) 28 DEC. '99
The Ghana Stock Exchange All-Share Index on Tuesday inched up by 0.11. points but the performance for the year remained poor.
The main market index closed trading at 735.61 points compared with 735.50 points recorded on Friday.
The change for the year was negative 15.29 per cent.
Total shares traded was one of the lowest ever, a mere 12,700, compared with Friday's 37,100 shares.
Offers were 315,040 shares compared with 389,440 on Friday while bids were only 45,300 compared with 381,500 last Friday.
Market capitalisation stood at 3,204.50 billion cedis, up from 3,204.34 billion cedis.
On the broader market, there were two price changes, both of which were gains.
Fan Milk Limited gained five cedis at 916 cedis while SSB Bank Limited gained one cedi at 1,984 cedis.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 458
AGC 18,700
ALW 2,489
BAT 469
CFAO 38
EIC 1,880
FML 916 +5
GBL 1,450
GCB 750
GGL 950
HFC 750
MGL 200
MLC 150
MOGL 14,000
PAF 300
PZ 800
SCB 19,000
SPPC 150
SSB 1,984 +1
UNIL 1,850
UTC-E 125
CMLT 420
GRi../