Koforidua Dec. 19 GNA-The New Juaben Municipal Teachers Savings Association, last year invested GHC 110,000.00 in the purchase of parcels of lands for its members.

The association also acquired shares valued at GHC 365,000.00 on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

Mr. Israel Benjamin Lassey, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, announced this at the seventh Annual General Meeting of the association in Koforidua on Friday.

Mr. Lassey named the companies as Aluworks Ghana Limited, Benson Oil Palm Plantation, CAL Bank, Cocoa Processing Company, Ecobank Ghana Limited, Enterprise Insurance Company, and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. Other companies included Ghana Commercial Bank, Ghana Oil Company, Standard Chartered Bank, State Insurance Company Limited and SG-SSB Bank Limited.

Mr. Lassey announced that the association recorded a surplus of GHC 86,479.99 in the year under review. He said the board had proposed a dividend payment of GHC 0.80 per share, which amounted to a total of GHC 15,016, representing 17.36 percent of the net surplus.

Mr. Lassey informed members that the challenges they began to face since the migration from the IPPD I to IPPD II database in October 2006 were still prevalent adding that frantic efforts were being made to stem those challenges.

He told them that recent developments at the Controller and Accountant General's Department showed that the risks of doing business with the department were very high and that they could not rely on the services provided there with 100 percent assurance.

Mr. Lassey said the outstanding loans issues that cropped up since October 2006, were still pending adding " as at June 30 this year, members who once belonged to the association but now reside outside New Juaben and draw their salaries there have their loans still outstanding." Ms. Abena Amoah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of New World Renaissance Securities Limited, who was the guest speaker, expressed worry about the culture of low savings among Ghanaians.

She urged Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of savings adding:" high levels of savings increases the amount of national resources available and decreases the need to resort to foreign borrowing in order to cover domestic investment and consumption demand".

Ms. Amoah observed that numerous countries with low internal savings rates tend to borrow from abroad, resulting in huge debts. "That clearly underscores the importance of savings mobilization to sustain economic growth using internally-generated financial resources". She said the mobilization of savings makes financial resources available and accessible to the informal sector operators to help them make a living and self sustaining. 19 Dec. 09