The Nsutaman Rural Bank, headquartered at Nsuta. the district capital of Sekyere Central District of Ashanti has impressively increased its assets and operational performance, a situation attracting a lot of customers and shareholders to patronize its business.
Professor Andrew Oteng-Amoako, Chairman of the Board of Directors speaking at the 19th Annual General Meeting of the Bank at Nsuta, said the bank’s total assets grew from GH¢9,185,576.00 in 2018 to GH¢10,547,816.00 in 2019, representing 14.83 percent growth.
He said, the 2019 financial year of the bank saw an increase of 21.32 percent of total deposits of the bank which represented an improvement of GH¢7,353,486.00 in 2018 to GH¢8,921,483.00 in 2019, adding that this achievement was possible due to customer’s confidence in the rural banking sector.
The Board Chairman said the Capital Adequacy Ratio of the bank had a total decline of 17.88 percent in 2019 as against 19.8 percent in 2018 as well as Liquidity Reserves decline of 8.89 percent in 2018 to 7.58 percent in 2019.
“We recorded a loss of GH¢153,835.00 in 2019 as against profit of GH¢147,487.00 in 2018 indicating negative growth of 104.3 percent. This was as a result of non-performance of our major investments with Gold Cold Securities resulting in interest income recording negative growth of 13.45 percent whilst total net income decreased by 15.6 percent in 2019”, he noted.
Professor Oteng-Amoako said though the bank realized 2.93 percent operational expenses in 2019, its stated capital grew from GH¢1,022,571.00 in 2018 to GH¢1,025,398.00 in 2019, representing growth of 0.28 percent and that was above Bank of Ghana’s minimum requirement of GH¢1.00 million for rural and community banks.
Touching on the loans and advances of the bank in 2019 financial year, he said the bank realized an increased growth of 48.57 percent, from GH¢1,707,956.00 in 2018 to GH¢2,537,582.00 in 2019 financial year.
Mr. Francis Kofi Arko, the General Manager of the bank expressed confidence in the rural baking sector and said the bank spent GH¢7,210.00 on donations and charitable contributions as part of its corporate social responsibility as well as its support to socio-economic activities of the communities within its operational areas.
He said the bank was currently embarking on “village savings and loans” initiative with the various community members in its catchment areas, adding that the initiative is also empowering the community members especially the smallholder farmers and petty traders to help improve productivity and sustainability of their businesses.