Repay poverty fund or face prosecution - Bank warns
Check weak internal control systems in rural banks
Repay poverty fund or face prosecution - Bank warns
Gomoa-Dawurampong (Central Region) 29 Nov. ’99
The Akyempin Rural Bank at Gomoa-Dawurampong in the Gomoa District, has given beneficiaries of the poverty alleviation fund in the area up to two weeks to repay the loan or face prosecution.
Mr Kingsley Kwame Owusu-Ansah, Senior Manager of the bank gave the warning at Dawurampong on Saturday.
Addressing defaulters of the scheme he explained that the amount given them were part of a revolving loan to assist individuals to initiate small-scale economic ventures.
He said other needy people in the district could also benefit only when they repay their loans.
Discard the notion that they money was a 'gift', he said.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said the government might increase the allocation if beneficiaries manage their loans judiciously.
The bank regard the package it administered for the District Assembly as a normal bank loan and would apply its recovery procedure to retrieve the loans, he warned.
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Check weak internal control systems in rural banks
Foase (Ashanti Region) 29 Nov. ’99
Directors of Rural Banks have been asked to firmly tackle the weak internal control systems "to check creeping theft of customers monies".
Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, a Director of the Association of Rural Banks, said fraudulent practices in the operations of some rural banks are leading to the loss of customers’ deposits, which should give cause for concern.
Addressing the 18th annual general meeting of shareholders of the Atwima Rural Bank at Foase, Mr Osei-Bonsu urged the banks to recruit internal auditors to ensure early detection of fraud and infuse sanity into their operations.
He identified poor loan administration as one of the major drawbacks to creditable performance of rural banks and asked the directors to take a critical look at prudent credit management.
He praised the Atwima Rural Bank for its tremendous progress over the years and called on the shareholders to increase the bank's share capital base.
The bank made a profit of 102.9 million cedis on its operations last year, representing an increase of about 48 percent over the previous year's profit of 80.5 million cedis, Baffour Appiah Dankwah III, Anantahene, and Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced.
The Board Chairman said the bank has set aside 9.6 million cedis to be paid as dividend to shareholders.
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