Kofiase (Ash), Aug 29, GNA - Mr Godson Samuelson Abiti, manager of Otuasekan Rural Bank with its headquarters at Kofiase in the Ashanti Region, has said that the operations of the bank in 2003 yielded a pre-tax profit of 851.2 million cedis, representing 284.1 percent improvement over the previous year (2002).

Presenting the operational review of the bank at its 15th annual general meeting on Friday, Mr Abiti said comparing the loan portfolio of 5.2 billion cedis in 2003 as against 1.8 billion cedis in 2002, the bank could have earned a greater profit margin, but because of the high defaulting rate, the bank had to provide huge sums as bad debts. The manager said because of the defaulting rate, management had decided to restrict credit delivery and rather invest in treasury bills. Mr Kyei Baffour Amoah, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, said deposit investments of the bank rose from 5.7 billion cedis in 2002 to 16.2 billion cedis in 2003 resulting in an increase of 184 percent.

Assets increased from 6.9 billion cedis to 19 billion cedis over the two-year period under review representing an increase of 175 percent. Ordinary share capital also rose from 58 million cedis to 215 million cedis.

"The bank's investment in the Ghana Government 91-day treasury bills and other discount houses also rose from 3.2 billion cedis to 9.0 billion cedis", he said.

Mr. Amoah said the bank set up a development fund to meet the increasing demand from communities within the catchments areas. An amount of 64.6 million cedis was disbursed to communities for education, health and water projects, while five million cedis was disbursed to six deserving students as scholarship.

Mr. Thomas Edward Atakorah, the Sekyere-West District Chief Executive, appealed to those who have taken loans from the bank to repay them so that others would also benefit from the facility.