The bank’s total assets rose from GH¢29.5 million in 2020 to GH¢35million in 2021, making an increase of 20 per cent while total deposits also grew from GH¢24.2 million in 2020 to GH¢30.4million in the year under review, registering an increase of 25.68 per cent.

 Its operating income increased from GH¢4.9 million from 2020 to GH¢6.3million, accounting for 29.13 per cent increase.

Naa Odofoley Nortey, Board Chairperson of the Bank, disclosed this at the bank’s 30^th annual general meeting at Abokobi in the Ga East Municipality of the Greater Accra Region on Saturday.   

She said the business and micro-economic environment in which the bank operated during the fiscal year was very challenging.

NaaNortey said the banking sector, and for that matter the economy, have been struggling to recover from the challenges posed by the financial sector reforms and the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Baard Chairperson said despite the Bank of Ghana’s continuous revision of regulatory policy measures to improve financial services and to support critical sectors of the economy, it took a lot of strategies for business to survive.

Naa Nortey said the banking sector remained generally liquid, profitable, well capitalised and resilient, adding that the strong policy support and regulatory reliefs implemented to address the effects of the external factors such as COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact positively on the industry’s performance.

“The dynamism of the banking environment continues to necessitate a clear path to stay ahead of the competition among other challenges in the industry,” she said.

NaaNortey noted that the board was still focused on the five-year strategic plan as the policy direction to direct the growth of the bank.

She said: “As a reminder and reinforcement of our quest the strategic plan is aimed at three fundamental goals which are pursuing growth, maximising shareholders’ value and community development”.

Our focus remains firmly on our mission which is to be the top rural bank in the Greater Accra Region through a well-motivated products and superior customer service in rural banking, NaaNortey said. 

The Board Chairperson said despite the Bank of Ghana’s temporal ban on the payment of dividend, the board and the management would continue to recognize the importance of enhancing and sustain the shareholders’ value maximisation through ensuring the bank’s profitability.

She said the board and management had written to Bank of Ghana to apprise the payment of dividend   for the year, adding that this humble request was based on the recognition that the shareholders have not received dividend on their investment for quite some time prior to the directive and it is our hope that the request will be granted to enable us to meet your dividend expectation.