Avenor Rural Bank Limited at Akatsi made a 42% net profit of GH¢183,569 in 2013, compared to GH¢129,142 in 2012, a performance described by the ARB Apex Bank as impressive.

The Bank’s total income also increased by 26.09%, from GH¢1,270,554 in the year before, to 1,602,092 in 2013, while investments grew 37.91% from GH¢1,560,914 to GH¢2,152,619.

Mr Simon Nerro Kodjo Davor, Chairman of the Bank’s Board of Directors, presented this at the Bank’s 31st Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the weekend at Akatsi.

He gave the profit before tax as GH¢202,550, being 43.07% above the 2012 figure of GH¢141,573.

He said advances made by the Bank also went up 12.37% or GH¢3,962,542, compared to GH¢3,526,470, and assets jumped 14.06% or GH¢7,318,987 from GH¢6,416,688.

Mr. Davor said the Bank had met all statutory requirements of the Bank of Ghana, exceeding the GH¢300,000 stated capital threshold (requirement) by GH¢32,361.

He nonetheless, expressed the need for all to put in more for investments in ICT, branch improvement and the Bank’s head office project.

Mr. Davor said shareholder funds had increased 22.92% to GH¢848,193 from GH¢690,055, while deposits made a 6.75% growth from GH¢5,013, 034 in 2012 to GH¢5,351,183.

He said he was hopeful the bank would sustain the steady growth in profits since 2010 to leap to greater heights.

Mr. Samuel Awatey, a Manager, who represented Mr Kwadwo A Kusi the Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank Limited, congratulated the management, staff and shareholders for the performance, but stressed that a lot still needed to be done by the Avenor Bank an all other Rural and Community Banks (RCBs.)

“All RCBs have a lot to do in organizational and operational transformation in areas of ICT, deposit mobilization, cost control and reduction”, he said.

He also asked them to institute effective risk management, to be vigilant to prevent the whims of fraudsters, improve customer care and to update skills of their staff.

Mr. Awatey said ICT infrastructure had been stabilized and availability improved in rural banking sector, with 137 RCBs and about 655 sites live on the T24 e-Merge banking software and more investments going on.

He said queues at RCBs were no more and the Apex-link money transfer had made same day reimbursements possible.

Mr.Awatey said the ICT platform improvement was to help the RCBs sustain and attract new businesses.

He said a pilot project to enable the use of cellular phones for banking businesses like payments, transfers, balance verification and Short Messaging System (SMS) alerts had started and should help the RCBs increase profit.

Three Directors were re-elected and a dividend of GH¢48,474.84 at GH¢0050 per share declared.

The bank also runs six agencies outside its catchment area including Ho, the Volta Regional capital.