Bank institutes insurance scheme for its customers
Ghana's wood exports up by four per cent
Juaben (Ashanti Region) 28 June
2000
The management of Juaben Rural
Bank has decided to utilise part of interests on savings to institute life,
health care and personal accident insurance for its customers.
The bank has therefore increased
its interest rates from 16 to 18 per cent. This was announced by Nana Awuah
Darko Ampem, chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank at its 15th annual
general meeting of shareholders at Asante-Juaben on Tuesday.
He said deposits in the bank have
increased from five million cedis in 1984 when the bank was established to 3.3
billion cedis last year and 1.6 billion cedis out of the deposits have been
invested in treasury bills.
Nana Ampem revealed that the bank
made a profit of about 150 million cedis last year as against 102 million cedis
in 1998 an increase of 46 per cent.
It paid a dividend of five cedis
per share amounting to 48.6 million cedis as against a dividend share of three
cedis per share in 1998 totalling 26.8 million cedes".
Nana Ampem, who is also the
Nkosuohene of Juaben, said during the year under review, the bank received 1.3
billion cedis from the World Bank.
He said the amount was disbursed
to 630 farmers in 22 communities in four districts in Ashanti, under the out
growers scheme for oil-palm farmers
GRi../
Takoradi (Western Region) 28 June
2000
Ghana's wood exports in 1999
totalled 433,000 cubic metres, up four per cent on the 1998 volume of almost
416 cubic metres.
The value was up from 171 million
dollars to 173.8 million dollars, according to "Ghana Gazette", a
newsletter of the Timber Export Division of the Forestry Commission.
In 1999 added value products based
on veneer totalled nearly 126,000 cubic metres valued at 55.6 million dollars.
These included rotary, sliced and
curls veneer, plywood and layons. It said added value products based on solid
wood, excluding kiln-dried sawn wood, in 1999 were less than veneer-based
products at just over 25,000 cubic metres valued at 18.5 million dollars.
The newsletter explained that the
lower figures for added value products based on solid wood was due to the
volume of wood supplied to furniture makers in Ghana and subsequently exported.
The added value element of veneer-based and solid wood-based goods amounted to
35 per cent of the total exported volume but nearly 43 per cent by value while
kiln-dried sawn wood and kiln boules made up 31 per cent of total export value
or 28 per cent by value, it said.
GRi../