GRi BEF News Ghana 22 - 10 - 2001

Rural banks advised to adopt prudent policies

Rural banks advised to adopt prudent policies

Gomoa Dawurampong (Central Region) 22 October 2001 - Rural banks have been advised to adopt prudent policies to expand their businesses and sustain their achievements over the past years.

Mr. Joseph B. Clottey, Head of the Banking Supervision Department of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) gave the advice at the fifteen annual shareholders meeting of Akyempim Rural Bank at Gomoa Dawurampong on Saturday.

He said, without the continued pursuance of prudent banking practices, rural and community banks would find it difficult to make appreciable strides in their operations.

Mr. Clottey commended directors and management of the bank and other rural banks, for their excellent performance, and urged them to maintain the tempo.

With the increasing dimension of operation of rural banks, the normal supervision functions of management were not adequate to instil internal controls in the banks, Mr. Clottey said and therefore, called for the establishment of a permanent internal audit functions in rural banks, appropriate to their sizes and scope of operations.

He said this function should be part of the on-going monitoring system under BOG's established policies and procedures.

A former Deputy Governor of the BOG and chairman of the bank's Board of Directors, Mr. Ernest S. Anno said the bank recorded about 2.2 billion cedis in deposits as at December 31, 2000 as against 1.4 billion cedis in 1999.

The number of customers of the bank rose from 13,149 in 1999 to 14,055 last year. Its net profit for the period under review stood at 82.9 million cedis compared to 10.5 million cedis the bank had in 1999.

Mr. Anno said the bank would provide 57.8 million cedis for payment as dividend to shareholders, and advised shareholders who have not claimed their part of the 25 million cedis dividend the bank declared in 1998 and 1999 to do so.

GRi../

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