NAARA RURAL BANK SUPPORTS EDUCATION, HEALTH ET ALL 9 -12 -2017

The Naara Rural Bank [NRB], a premier rural bank in the Upper East Region has spent a total of 9,614.00 Ghana Cedis in support of various activities in the education, health and agriculture sectors during the 2016 fiscal year.

Board Chairman of the bank, Mr. Kweku Ananga made this known in his report at the bank’s 27^th Annual General Meeting held in Paga over the weekend. He said the gesture formed part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility to the communities whose residents formed the main clientele of the bank and whose deposits, have kept the bank alive through the decades. He added that, such annual financial assistance to the sectors also goes a long way to complement government’s interventions and programmes in those areas.

Giving the details, he said GH₵4,434.00 was spent on education while GH₵2,300.00 was used in supporting the health sector. The agriculture sector received support amounting to GH₵2,880.00.

Mr. Ananga’s report which centered on the bank’s performance for the year ended 31^st December, 2016 revealed that, the total assets of the bank appreciated from GH₵26,290,070.00 in 2015 to GH₵29,540,303.00 in 2016. Deposits also rose from the 2015 figure of GH₵20,471,422.00 to a high of GH₵23,156,478.00 at end of December 2016. Meanwhile, the bank’s net worth also increased from GH₵4,336,496.00 in 2015 to GH₵4,934,060.00 in 2016. It was however its net profit after tax that dipped from GH₵859,193.00 in 2015 to GH₵545,493.00 by close of 2016.

He noted that the bank could have done better than what it achieved in the year under review but for the depreciation of the Ghana Cedi at almost 32 percent against the US Dollar coupled with the 2016 General elections and other poor economic indices. He also reported that recovery of loans and advances improved during the year from 13,970,007 Ghana Cedis in 2015 to 14,788,184 Ghana Cedis in 2016. He observed however that, there was still a lot of cash owed the bank and that a debt collections expert, Advance Debt Recovery Ghana had been contracted to trace all defaulters for the redemption of their owings.

The Board Chair revealed that, as per the Bank of Ghana and the Efficiency Monitoring Unit of the ARB Apex Bank ratings regime, the NRB continued to maintain its number one position among the Northern Rural and Community Banks in terms of total assets, deposits, net worth,  profitability, loans and advances.

He pledged that the Board will invest more in educating the bank’s staff in modern banking courses to improve their competencies on the job. The NRB which was established on 9^th July, 1981, has a staff strength of 61.

General Manager of the NRB, Naba Samuel Namoog in a statement disclosed that, the bank has its presence in five of the 13 districts of the Upper East region. He mentioned Sirigu, Pelungu, Tongo and Chiana as some of the agency-bases of the bank. He hinted that the bank’s strategic focus was to open more branches and also improve its ICT platform in order to stimulate efficiency and increase customer satisfaction. He thanked the ARB Apex Bank for assisting the bank with ICT logistics and training.   

In a speech read for him, Upper East Regional Minister Mr. Rockson A. Bukari observed that over the decades of its existence, the NRB had created jobs for people across the region through staff recruitment. He added that, the bank’s work also impacted positively on economic activities in its operational areas through disbursement of loans to market women and business entities.

Mr. Bukari praised Management and staff of the bank for placing 41^st out of 141 banks profiled nationwide during the period. This he noted, was largely attributable to hard work and the achievement of some key performance indicators as might have been set by the Bank of Ghana and other evaluating authorities.

According to the Regional Minister, government’s initiative is to launch a National Development Bank with the capacity to mobilise private capital towards agricultural and industrial transformation while the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund [GIIF] will be restructured to speed up infrastructural development. Meanwhile, the Akuffo Addo Programme for Economic Transformation [AAPET] as captured in the 2018 budget will among other things, establish a 400 million Ghana Cedi insurance scheme for the agriculture and agribusiness sector in order to reduce associated risks and also abolish duties on some agro-processing equipment.

He appealed to Management of the bank and other sister banks to respond positively to government’s call for voluntary contributions into a Voluntary Education Fund which will among other objectives, help fund the flagship Free Senior High School programme.