The Board Chairman of Afram Community Bank in the Eastern Region, Jeff Konadu, has called on shareholders of the Bank to continue entrusting the bank by depositing their monies there because the bank is on the path of growth.
Mr Konadu made this remarks while addressing shareholders during the 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank last Saturday at the Salem Presbyterian Church in Tease in the Afram Plains South District of the Eastern Region.
“I wish to encourage all of us to be ambassadors to our bank as we are on the path of growth when compared with previous years before we took the managerial mantle as board of directors of the bank. Before we came on board in 2015 our net capital was nothing to talk about and we were running a negative balance of profit before tax, but today we can boast of Ghc1,536,287.00 as a stated capital for 2018 recording 14.98% increment as compared to 1,336,047 in 2017 financial year.
“Talking about profit, we recorded 3.8% reduction in our total profit before tax as compared to the 2017 financial year with 664.606 and 691.014 for 2018 and 2017 respectively and this is due to the fear imposed on customers as the bank of Ghana initiated the banking and financial cleaning,” he stated.
Mr. Jeff konadu observed that “the success chocked by the bank is a true reflection of the global economy as it kept recuperating from the downward trend in 2017 with a growth of 3.7% in 2018, same as in 2017.
According to the International Monitory Fund (IMF) this was mainly due to an unexpected weaker performance in some economies in Europe and Asia. As a result of the slowdown, global economic growth for 2019 is expected to continue this downward trend with a projected growth rate of 3.5%”.
According to the Director who declared the fate of the community bank regarding to the minimum capital requirement of GHC 1000,000 set by the Bank of Ghana reported that “your bank has exceeded the Bank of Ghana’s requirements by GHC 536287.00. I would further like to assure you that your bank is very strong and resilient and has met all other prodential requirements set by the bank of Ghana. It is my passionate appeal however, to all shareholders who are yet to meet their minimum holding of 500 shares, as in accordance with shareholders’ resolution passed at the 2016 Annual General Meeting to increase their shareholdings”.
Mr. Jeff konadu explainied the inability of the directors to declare dividends to it’s shareholders statement that “I would like to once again reiterate the fact that your bank is still on the path of full recovery and still has to make some write offs and certain provisions to consolidate our position. This is to enable us fully comply with section 35(1) of the bank and specialised deposit taking Act, 2016 (Act 930). It is therefore regrettable to inform you that the board of directors does not recommend payment of dividends”.
He said the directors are still pursuing the expansion agenda. We are hoping to receive approval from Bank of Ghana soon to set up three new branches at konogo in the Ashanti Region, Abetifi and Anyinam in the Eastern Region.
Source: William Dei-Gyau
