Mr Anthony Effah, the Chairman of Board of Governors, disclosed this at the 32nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank at Breman Asikuma in the Central Region.    The shareholders, during the AGM, passed a resolution authorising the directors to transfer an amount of GHc 200,000.00 from the Bank’s Income Surplus Account to its Capital Account.

The chairman was retained to continue with his immense contributions towards the growth of the bank while Mr Felix Oweradu Beadu from Breman Asikuma and Mr Frank E. Antwi from Brakwa were elected to replace two board members whose tenure of office had expired after serving for three years.

Mr Effah said the bank’s total income less total interest expenses stood at GHc 3,077,442 in the year under review compared to GHc 2,587,182 in 2015 representing 19 per cent.He said deposits increased from GHc 6,762,745.00 in 2015 to GHc 9,057,001.00 in 2016 representing 34 per cent growth.

Mr Effah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, said the achievement was due to a supplementary aggressive deposit mobilisation strategy adopted by the bank adding that it did pay competitive interest rate on its deposits.

The total assets of the bank also increased from GHc 8,871,301 in 2015 to GHc 11,788,036 in 2016, representing 33 per cent growth with its investments also growing by 30 per cent from GH 1,750,000.00 in 2015 to  GHc 2,270,942 in 2016.

The Net Loan and Overdraft granted to customers grew by 21 per cent from GHc 4,485,286.00 in 2015 to GHc 5,429,980 in 2016 due to expansion in the bank’s Women in Development (WID) programme.  Mr Effah announced that the board had increased the WID loan from GHc 5,000.00 to GHc 7,000.00 per cycle and urged women customers to take advantage of this to expand their business.In an attempt to meet the GHc 1,000,000.00 share capital target by the Bank of Ghana, the bank has launched the second edition of share promotion to end in December 2017 with a raffle draw.

Winners will take home Tricycle-Aboboya, television sets, refrigerators and rice cookers, Mr Effah said, and appealed to all customers to take part. Mr. R. Acquah Arhin, the Central Regional Chairman of Rural Banks, commended the board and shareholders for working hard to earn this achievement.  Mr Kojo Mattah, the Managing Director of the ARB APEX Bank Limited, in a speech read on his behalf, applauded the board, management and staff of the Brakwa Breman Rural Bank for a successful year.

He said the report by the Board Chairman was sufficient evidence of the effective and efficient management of the bank’s resources and expressed the hope that it would continue to chalk greater success in the years ahead.