The Bosomtwe Rural Bank continues to show strong performance, posting a net profit of over GH¢1 million on its operations, last year.

This represented a 30 per cent increase over the previous year’s total of about GH¢784,007.

Mr Philip Bondah, the Board Chairman, who announced this said deposits also grew during the period from GH¢21.4 million to GH¢23.6 million.

At the same time, loans and advances rose to GH¢11.6 million from GH¢11.4 million.

Addressing the 24th annual general meeting of the shareholders at Kuntanase in the Bosomtwe District, he said the Bank’s capital adequacy ratio increased from GH¢537,815 to GH¢641,594.

The event was used to elect new members to the board to manage and direct the affairs of the bank.

Mr Bondah said as a good corporate citizen, it spent GH¢28,900 on its social responsibility and that the support went into agriculture, education, health and security.

He conceded that the year under review was a difficult one for the rural banks, saying, things were not helped by the frequent power interruptions and petroleum price hikes.

They had to rely heavily on generators to carry out their business operations.

Mr Kwadwo Aryee Kusi, President of the Apex Bank, gave high marks to the bank for what he described as its “sterling performance” and ranked it among the 14 best performing rural banks in the country.

He counseled that this should, however, not make the management complacent but must inspire it to step up its deposit mobilization and loans recovery effort.

The board should also continue to maintain best management practices to grow the bank, reduce risks and prevent fraud.

Madam Veronica Antwi-Adjei, the District Chief Executive (DCE), urged the bank to do more to help boost the economies of the rural communities.