Akim Swedru (C/R), Jan 12, GNA - The Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr Kwaku Owusu Baah, has urged workers in the informal sector to eschew the under-declaration of their emolument in order to pay the appropriate taxes to help speed up national development.

He reminded such workers that the country's development depended on the honesty, hard work and total contribution of all sectors of the people and not on foreign donors.

Mr Owusu Baah, who is also the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Akim Bosome Rural Bank in the Birim South District, was interacting with management and staff of the bank during their end-of-year get-together at Akim Swedru on Wednesday. He charged the staff of the bank to work extra hard and to guard against malingering to enable the bank to meet its profit target of two billion cedis for the year.

The Manager of the bank, Mr Kwadwo Antwi Okyere, appealed to people in the bank's catchment area to sustain interest in its management and operations to ensure its viability.

He explained that the rationale for increased rural banking activities was not only to inculcate banking habits in the rural dwellers but also to stimulate the capital formation process in the rural sector of the economy.

Mr Okyere said rural development was very important because of the immense contribution the growth of that sector of the economy could make to the over-all development of the nation. The vice-chairman of the Board, Mr Appiah Marfo, thanked the staff and customers of the bank on their closer co-operation, which he said had enabled the bank to achieve success.