Madam Felicia Aba Dawood
The financial sector reforms have largely succeeded in terms of enhancing financial development and the expansion in size and diversity of the banking sector, says the Board Chair of Lower Pra Rural Bank in Shama, Felecia Aba Dawood.
Since the introduction of the financial sector reforms, she said banks have derived considerable gains from their investments in government securities and Bank of Ghana (BoG) securities until the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Madam Aba Dawood, disclosed this at the 36th Annual General Meeting of the Bank on Saturday.
She mentioned some specific policy reforms which enhanced banks performance as interest-rate liberalisation, decontrol of credit allocation and the removal of non-performing assets to the Non-Performing Assets Recovery Trust.
She stressed that modern technology and digitalisation is the driving force behind today’s banking and that the banking sector is being repositioned for the task ahead.
“Electronic or E-banking is being introduced to transact banking business across the country”, she indicated.
She said as part of the changes in the banking sector, the minimum capital of Rural and Community Banks was moved from GH¢400,000.00 to GH¢1 million.
She also told the shareholders that Lower Pra Rural Bank has exceeded the minimum capital of GH¢1 million.
She mentioned that during the period under review, the bank’s total deposits increased from GH¢ 183.89 million in 2022 to GH¢236.1 million in 2023 representing an increase of 28%.
She said the bank offered advances to its numerous customers in the form of sundry loans, group loans, loans to salaried workers, overdrafts, consumer goods, and vehicle and building loans.
“The advances outstanding under our lending programme in 2023 totalled GH¢101.7m as against GH¢93.42 in 2022 representing an increase of 9%”, she added.
Madam Aba Dawood mentioned that the bank is not relenting on its effort in recovering all advances and as a result some recalcitrant loan defaulters have been sent to court.
She added that the bank is continuously pursuing its policy of prudent investment to maximise returns on shareholders’ funds.
She said the total investment in near cash securities as at December 31, 2023 was GH¢ 110.3m as against GH¢67.6m in 2022 representing an increase of 93%.
She disclosed that the total assets of the bank as at December 31, 2023 amounted to GH¢255.9 million as against GH¢201.9 million in 2022 representing an increase of 26.75% adding, “The growth in the total assets conforms to the bank’s sustainable growth rate policy”.
The outgoing Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Isaac Kwamina Afful, said the bank’s interest was his priority and worked hard to help mitigate credit risk and eliminate fraud.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi