By Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
ARB Apex Bank PLC has commended the Nandom Rural Bank for its upward trending deposits for the 2020 financial year, which ended on 31st December 2020. The bank’s deposits grew from GH₵;19.43 million in 2019 to GH₵ 25.49 million in 2020 which represents an impressive 31% growth.
The Head of Branch Banking Unit of ARB Apex Bank, Mark Odoi Adjei made the commendation at the 39th Annual General Meeting of the Nandom Rural Bank at Nandom in the Upper West Region.
Mr Adjei who delivered a speech on behalf of the Acting Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Alex Kwesi Awuah said the phenomenon is a vote of confidence in the Nandom Rural Bank because within the same period, dividend payments were deferred.
In this write up, GBC’s Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo says Mr. Mark Odoi Adjei indicated that although the Nandom Rural Bank has not moved into the profitability range yet, it is encouraging that other assets have also reduced drastically by 96% from GHS 7,648,473.00 in 2019 to GHS 396,967.00 in 2020.
Mr Adjei touched on Bank of Ghana’s directive on the realignment of titles used by managers of Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) which came up at Chief Executive Officers’ Conference at Kwahu Nkwatia in Eastern Region, “The general trend prior to the CEO’s conference was that some RCBs adopted the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) title. It has therefore been agreed that, henceforth our managers shall be referred to as CEOs. This would help realign and bring uniformity in the official titles of Managers of our member RCBs.”
“ARB Apex Bank would be commencing a nationwide training for our directors and key management personnel of the RCBs on how to appreciate the relevant provisions of two key Acts, namely the: Specialized Deposit Taking Institutions Act 2016 (Act 930); and Companies Act 2019 (Act 992),” Mr Adjei added.
He therefore implored the RBCs to fully participate in order to derive the maximum benefits”.
The Board Chairman of the Nandom Rural Bank, Francis Beinpuo said the bank during the 2020 financial year disbursed GHS 6,270,580.00 as against GHS 5,743,466.00 in 2019 representing an increase of 5%.
He continued that financing of commercial activity remained the bank’s biggest operation, taking up about 65% of its total lending activity for the period.
The bank’s agricultural lending improved by over 165%, from GHS105,775 in 2019 to GHS 239,498 in 2020.
Mr Beinpuo stated that at the end of 2020, the bank’s total assets grew from GH₵ 5.754 million in 2019 to GH₵ 31.268 million posting a 21.4% growth.
