The Sekyedomase Rural Bank is showing strong returns on its operation, announcing a third quarter profit of GH¢484,329.00 for the year.

Compared with the previous year’s figure, this showed an increase of about 180 per cent.

Mr. Kwame Antwi Frimpong, the Board Chairman, made this known at the 25th Annual General Meeting of the shareholders held at Sekyedomase in the Ejura-Sekyedomase Municipality.

He said despite the challenging business environment they were able to grow the bank’s deposits from 12 million Ghana cedis to 14.3 million Ghana cedis.

Its investments also hit 5 million Ghana cedis from 4 million Ghana cedis during the period under review.

At the same time, the bank’s shares went up to GH¢258,299.00 from GH¢186,808.00 with its net worth rising from 1.3 million Ghana cedis to 1.8 million Ghana cedis.

Mr. Frimpong urged the owners of the bank to continue to increase their share holdings.

He advised loan beneficiaries to do everything possible to pay back their loans, to enable more customers to benefit from the facility.

Mr. George K. Annor, Branch Manager of the Kumasi APEX Bank, praised the bank for its remarkable performance over the years, and asked the directors to sustain the good job.

He reminded the bank to improve on its credit management policies, and work hard to recover outstanding loans and overdrafts to customers.

This, he said, would tremendously help to increase its profitability.

Mr. Annor used the occasion to recommend the establishment of an audit unit for rural banks to prevent fraudulent deals.