AS CUSTOMERS OF ASUOPRA RURAL BANK RISK LOSING MILLIONS IN SAVINGS

By Daily Democrat Reporter

Some customers of Asuopra Rural Bank at Afosu in the Birem District of the Eastern region are blaming the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for failing to put measures in place to forestall the near collapse of the rural bank, leading to the risk of losing their savings.

According to them, as a supervisory body that is the ‘mother of all bank,’ BoG has not lived up to its responsibilities of monitoring and controlling rural banks in the country in order to put them on the right track and salvage the hard-earn monies of Ghanaians.

The Asuopra Rural Bank, for some two years now, has failed to give back customers’ monies to them as it appears to be heading for bankruptcy. Customers who used to throng their premises are wondering what has happened to a bank that is keeping their life-time savings, and are pointing accusing fingers at BoG.

The bank’s staff has been reduced to a skeletal number of some six men who give it a semblance of life even though nothing is going on there. The staff’s duty now is to ‘attend’ to customers who come around to enquire about any developments. They also go round to collect loans owed to the bank and use them as their salary.

According to Mr. Ahmed Ousman, Supervising Manager of the bank, the problem started when the Bank of Ghana increased the capital requirement of rural banks, which made it difficult for them to operate at full capacity. He further explained that, this was coupled with a sudden panic withdrawal, which crippled the bank. He, however, assured that after the bank’s imminent Annual General Meeting, which date he could not state, things would come back to normalcy.
Rumors of the bank sponsoring political activities of the previous government have added a political twist to the situation, especially when symptoms of the problem started right after the NPP’s loss of the last elections.

When contacted, Madam Esi Hammond, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Bank of Ghana, referred The Daily Democrat to the Banking Supervision Division, which also requested that a letter be sent to the Secretary to the bank.
However, a month after the letter was sent on the 13th of December, 2010, no response has come forth.

Whilst customers lament the possible loss of their hard-earned monies, with some of them heading towards destitution, one institution that is continually incurring their anger is the Bank of Ghana, which they blame for their predicament.
Until some action is taken to save the customers from the loss of their monies, a humanitarian situation looms. Some of them have already withdrawn their wards from school, whilst others have had their businesses collapsing, not forgetting those whose farms have overgrown with weeds.
Stay tuned.