Bank of Ghana to
close down all distressed banks
COCOBOD releases funds for cocoa purchased
Bank of Ghana to
close down all distressed banks
Antoakrom (Ashanti Region) 22
January 2001
The Bank of Ghana (BOG) will
continue to liquidate all distressed banks to allow only efficiently and
effectively managed ones to operate, Mr Emmanuel Asiedu-Mante, head of the
Banking Supervision Division of the BOG, has announced.
Banks are established to operate
and contribute to socio-economic development, he reminded the Ninth Annual
General Meeting of shareholders of the Amansie West Rural Bank at Antoakrom in
the Amansie West District of Ashanti on Saturday.
Mr. Asiedu-Mante said that, last
year, three major banks - Bank for Credit and Commerce, Bank for Housing and
Construction (BHC) and the Co-operative Bank - were liquidated.
Within the same period, however,
two new banks, STANBIC and Amalgated Bank, were given the licence by the
Central Bank to operate.
In addition, 23 out of the 111
rural banks operating in the country were liquidated and two others have been
given the warning to improve on their performance or they would be liquidated
by the end of March.
He said research undertaken by the
BOG indicated that the poor performance of rural banks was the result of
inefficiency on the part of the boards of directors, management, poor patronage
by people within its catchment area and the inability of both the board and
management to recover loans granted to their customers.
Mr Asiedu-Mante pointed out that
loans are granted to customers based on their ability to repay them within
specific periods, and appealed to workers of the rural banks to accept loans that
they could repay within their means and salaries.
He announced that the BOG would
soon publish the borrowing and lending rates of rural banks similar to the
major banks in the mass media to enable the people in the rural areas to become
aware of the rates at their banks.
Captain Moses Kyerematen (Rtd),
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, appealed to the government to
set up a special task force to monitor the operations of all private cocoa
purchasing companies in the country.
He noted that these companies have
abused the Akuafo cheque system introduced by the previous government.
They are also cheating the farmers
and preventing them from having financial assistance from the banks to expand
and increase their production or obtain scholarships from the banks since there
are no records on their purchases.
Capt. Kyerematen said despite
these problems, the bank purchased cocoa worth about five billion cedis during
the 1998/99 cocoa season as compared to two billion cedis during the 1997/98
season.
He said with the introduction of a
"susu" scheme for its customers, it managed to increase its deposit
base to about 62 million cedis, made treasury bill purchases of about 1.6
billion cedis in 1999 as compared to 835 million cedis in 1998.
The chairman said that, despite
the problems which affected the bank in 1998 when armed robbers broke into it
and made away with about 35 million cedis that has been refunded by the State
Insurance Company (SIC), it managed to grant loans totalling about 1.3 billion cedis
to its customers.
These included workers, farmers,
traders, transport operators and cottage industry entrepreneurs.
Capt. Kyerematen assured the
shareholders that the bank would continue to assist in the development of
communities within its catchment area and offer scholarships to needy students
in the area.
GRi…/
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Agona Swedru (Central Region) 22 Jan 2001
The Ghana Cocoa Board has released about five billion cedis to the Central Regional branch of the Produce Buying Company (PBC) for the payment of cocoa purchased in the main crop season.
This followed threats by the cocoa farmers for non-payment of their cocoa.
Mr Nii A. Tettey, Central Regional Manager of the company, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency at Agona Swedru last Thursday, said about 95 per cent of the cocoa farmers who were owed by the PBC had received their money.
He said it was not the intention of the company to starve the farmers or its agents but that funds were not available.
Mr Tettey said when the main crop season reaches its peak funds become scarce until toward the end of the season when more funds are released to his outfit, and urged the farmers to bear with the PBC.
The Regional Manager expressed appreciation to the farmers for exercising restraint up to this time.
Meanwhile, a source at the Agona Swedru District office of the PBC indicated that over three billion cedis has been paid to cocoa farmers within one week.
The source appealed to the farmers to take advantage of farming inputs available at the Swedru district office to purchase them to maintain their farms.
GRi../
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