Tamale, June 25, GNA - The Board of the Credit Union of the Savannah Agriculture Workers, has introduced a loan protection scheme to protect its members against losses and difficulties or in the event of death or permanent disabilities.

Known as Loan Protection Plan (LPP), when a member servicing a loan dies or becomes incapacitated, the scheme would pay the unpaid loan of the deceased to his credit union and also pay the repaid portion of the loan to the bereaved family. Dr Benjamin Ahiabor, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Savannah Agricultural Workers Co-operative Credit Union Limited, announced this at the 24th Annual General Meeting of the Union at Nyankpala on Thursday.

The occasion was on the theme: "Credit Union: A credible tool for personal development". Dr Ahiabor said additionally, if the deceased member's savings was insured, then the Union would pay twice the deceased insured savings balance to the family.

He said the plan also aims at protecting the credit union against loan losses and the member by protecting the savings of the member and his guarantor. He said since its inception, the Union had paid a total of GH¢4,037.92 to the Credit Union Association (CUA) as premium covering January to May, 2009.

Dr Ahiabor said the total loans granted members between July 1, 2008 and May 2009 amounted to GH¢229,225.00 while withdrawals totalled GH¢47,165.00 for the same period.

He said the current total assets of the Union stood at GH¢384,288.40, as at May, 31 2009 as compared to GH¢328,334.42 covering the period between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, representing an increase of 20.89 per cent.

Dr Ahiabor said as a result of its prudent performance over the last year, the Union had been upgraded from grade "C" to grade "B". The Board Chairman said the current membership of the Union stood at 383 as at last year, with 25 of them being private contributors. Mr Samuel Bananzi, Northern Regional Manager of the CUA advised members of the Union to invest their loans wisely to improve upon their personal development.

He urged them to be committed to the Union and endeavour to repay the loans on time to enable others to benefit from the facility.