Asesewa (E/R), Oct. 29, GNA - The Upper Manya Kro Rural Bank (UMKRB) at Asesewa recorded an after-tax profit of 2.02 billion cedis in 2006 as against 1.5 billion cedis for 2005, representing nearly 35 percent increase.

Total assets recorded a 31 percent rise moving from 26.7 billion cedis in 2005 to 34.9 billion in 2006. Mr James Otieku, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said this at the 23rd Annual General Meeting that coincided with the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Bank at Asesewa on Saturday. He said in 2006, the bank stepped up its social responsibility by spending 90.3 million cedis as against 27.6 million cedis in 2005 on some community support interventions for the benefit of a number of institutions and individuals in its operating areas. The stated capital of the bank increased from 585 million cedis in 2005 to 1.2 billion cedis last year. He said a notable achievement of the bank for the year under review was its admission as the 45th member of "Ghana Club 100" for 2005 and that in the rural banking category of Ghana Club 100 2005, the bank was ranked first in the Eastern Region.

Mr Dela Selormey, Head, Banking Supervision Department, Bank of Ghana (BoG) said a speech read on his behalf that the central bank had introduced an electronic financial analysis surveillance system by which banks were required to submit prudential returns online. "It is therefore incumbent upon banks to invest in IT systems that would interface with BoG system" he said. He said the BoG now required rural banks, which wish to open new agencies, to computerize their operations. Mr Selormey said changes in the banking and economic environment over the years had called for a review of the rural banking concept to make it sustainable and effective.

"Accordingly, the BoG has increased the minimum capital for licensing of new rural/community banks to 1.5 billion cedis" he said. He said the bank further required rural/community banks to restrict their operations to the rural areas and to refocus their attention on micro enterprises and individual entrepreneurs in those areas and should not locate their head offices in the metropolitan and municipal centres. Mr Selormey said the central bank would however allow rural/community banks with minimum stated capital of 15 billion cedis or more to have a branch in the metropolitan or municipal areas and might be permitted to migrate into savings and loans companies.

Mr E.K Kwapong, Managing Director, ARB Apex Bank, said in a speech read on his behalf that all head offices of rural banks would be computerized within three years under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme. MCA would also provide funds to install a Wide Area Network (WAN) to connect all rural banks to the Apex Bank and the BoG. The programme would enable the full integration of all rural and community banks into the national payment system. 29 Oct. 07