The Builsa Community Bank (BUCOBANK) in Sandema has paid 30 per cent of its net profits before tax totalling GHc37,166.40 to shareholders at two Pesewas per share.
Mr Edward Atagabe, Chairman of the Board of Directors (BoD) of the Bank announced this at the weekend during its Annual General Meeting in Sandema.
He said the proposal for the two pesewas per share was made after a review of the bank’s operations for 2009.
He said in order for the bank to meet its social responsibilities the BoD also considered five per cent of the net profit for every financial year to be paid into a social responsibility fund to be used to support brilliant but needy children as well as in other developmental areas.
He said in the year under review, an amount of GHc4,537.00 was expended as part of the bank’s social responsibility to cover education grants, health, culture and agriculture.
He said the Bank had sourced for financial support from development partners such as UNICEF and Micro Credit and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC ) among others, to expand its micro finance unit for the development of small and medium scale businesses in the district.
He said the Bank also planned to open another branch at Fumbisi to enable it to cater for the thirteen villages in the Builsa district and urged prospective clients to take advantage of the various projects under the credit scheme.
He also urged all people in the district to take advantage of programmes government had rolled out such as the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP) to improve their livelihoods.
He called on all clients owing the bank to endeavour to settle their indebtedness since that affected other areas of operations of the bank.
Madam Margaret Akambang, a teacher, was elected the new Board Chairperson.