ALL RCBs IN UPPER EAST PASS BoG CASH REQUIREMENT 16th October, 2021
All the five licensed Rural and Community Banks [RCBs] in the
Upper East Region, have met the minimum capitalisation requirement of One Million
Ghana Cedis peg as set by the Bank of Ghana [BoG]. This capitalisation ceiling according
to the BoG, was to be realized by all banks in this categorization by the end
of 2021. 
A Cross Section of Shareholders at the AGM
The Managing Director of the ARB Apex Bank Mr. Alex Awuah, made this disclosure in his address at the 30th Annual General Meeting [AGM] of the Naara Rural Bank held last weekend in Navrongo – capital of the Kassena Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region. He revealed in his address as Guest Speaker to the admiration of the shareholders that, the Naara Rural Bank had not only met the above stated minimum capital requirement but indeed, exceeded the figure.
It will be recalled that in year 2015, the BoG made an upward review to the minimum capital requirement of RCBs from 300 Thousand Ghana Cedis to One Million Ghana Cedis. This new requirement should make the said banks very fluid and solvent enough to conduct the prescribed business and to render appropriate banking services to clients and the general public. It is also worthy to note that, from only 30 rural banks in the 1980’s, Ghana today has about 145 of such institutions nationwide helping to build local economies.
Mr. Awuah observed that though Naara Rural Bank had a few challenges in recent times which culminated in the firing of the then general manager and the subsequent dissolution of the bank’s Board, the ARB Apex Bank PLC in concert with the Bank of Ghana had constituted and empowered an interim board on March 22, 2021 which has since been overseeing the bank’s operations. He said additionally, a Relieving Manager had also been appointed to lead and give direction to the bank’s working staff all under the strict supervision of the two authorities.
According to the Apex Bank boss, all the needful realignments and appropriate measures were being taken to forestall any such mishap in the future. He added that, a substantive General Manager would soon be appointed for the bank while by June 2022, an AGM would be called for shareholders to formally elect the full Board of Directors. He assured the customers and shareholders of the bank that, the woes of the bank did not push it into any precarious financial situation to warrant any fears from shareholders and the general banking public. He gave the assurance that in a relatively short while, the bank will regain itself resilient self and esteem as a leading rural bank in the north of Ghana.
Mr. Awuah appealed to all who owed the bank to immediately redeem their loans in order to augment the bank’s finances and to make way for others to also receive similar loans for business and other purposes. He charged the shareholders to persuade their friends and families to invest in the bank by buying shares while pledging that, the BoG and the Apex Bank will not spare any staff of the bank who engages in any fraudulent activities contrary to the banking sector regulations.
Meanwhile the Board Chairman of the bank, Rev. Father Joseph
Aseyire Tabase earlier in his report to the AGM revealed that, the bank’s
Deposits increased from 32.7 million Ghana Cedis in 2018 to 38.8 million Ghana
Cedis in 2019. Also, the bank’s Total Assets grew successively from 39,999,154
Cedis in 2018, to 44,816,725 in 2019 and eventually to 55,380,308 in 2020. He
disclosed that, profitability margins however declined to 59,443 Ghana Cedis in
2019 from the previous year’s figure of 617,081 Ghana Cedis. This further went
down to 237,333 Cedis in 2020. 
Board Chair, Rev. Fr. Tabase presenting report
Rev. Tabase also revealed that, the Naara Rural Bank had as much as Six Million Ghana [GHȻ6,000,000.00] locked with the defunct Gold Coast Fund Management and thus, conveyed a urgent appeal from the Board of Directors to the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission to assist his bank and other rural banks to access their locked-up funds for the progression of business and the development of rural economies.
According to the Board Chair, the ARB Apex Bank PLC and the BoG had directed the interim Board and Management of the bank to prepare various policies and manuals, a board charter and a strategic plan to guide the bank’s operations as the previous ones had operational gaps. All these are aimed at bringing the bank to the same page with the new Corporate Governance and Compliance directives of May 2021 as well as the Companies Act 2019 and other statutory documents. He assured the AGM that, the team was in the process of drafting these documents and that same will be submitted soon to the regulators for approval.
Rev. Tabase also told the AGM that the bank had engaged a few contract staff to assist the 61 regular staff mainly in mobilisation and other important schedules so as to increase its fortunes, deposits and other indicators. Meanwhile, the services of a consultant are being utilized to assess staff for further training and for the development of a human resource manual and a conditions of service guide.
In his remarks, the Upper East ARB Chapter President, Mr. Cletus Azaabi charged the bank’s Board to educate shareholders on the new corporate directives of the BoG part of which limits the maximum term of board members to nine [9] years and the composition of the boards to have at least five [5] members and not more than seven [7] members. He also used the occasion to appeal to the BoG and other relevant State actors to consider a downward review of the 25 percent Corporate Tax arguing that the current rate had a negative toll on the operations of the rural and community banks and “really pushing many RCBs to a level of distress”.
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