Nkoranza (B/A), Feb. 23, GNA - The Nkoranza area Teachers' Cooperative Credit Union in Brong-Ahafo realized a net surplus of 322,166,366 cedis at the close of June last year, as against 221,078, 924 cedis in 2004.

The profit margin represented 10.3 percent of the union's total assets as against the Credit Union Association's (CUA) standard of five percent.

Announcing this at an annual general meeting at Nkoranza, Mr Alex Baffoe-Nkrumah, outgoing chairman of the board of directors said the Union's ordinary savings increased from 1,765,657,792 cedis to 2,028,482,728 cedis, a percentage increase of 14.6 percent. A total amount of 2,326,004,980 cedis was given out as loans to members and the total assets of the Union within the year stood at 3,129,596,504 cedis, as against 2,574,800,644 cedis in the previous year, with the share capital being 165,881,000 cedis.

Mr Baffoe-Nkrumah announced that as part of the Union's social responsibilities it had offered six million cedis as financial assistance for six needy but brilliant students of the Nkoranza Secondary/Technical and Busunya Secondary schools.

He said the main challenges facing the Union was loan recovery from some member beneficiaries and called on guarantors of the defaulters to remind them to honour their obligations to avoid embarrassment. The District Director of Education Mr Kwabena Agyemang-Badu expressed concern about the refusal of some teachers to belong to the Union and had chosen to patronize other credit companies for loans with cutthroat interests, which had caused the deletion of the names of some of them on the pay roll at the Accountant General's office.

He commended members for offering financial support towards the education of selected needy and brilliant students in the District, saying their efforts had established a memorable testimony for the Union.

Mr Fred Adu Ayisi, a field service manager of CUA deplored the practice by some people to refuse to repay loans granted them and called on the management of the Union to identify the loan defaulters and ensure that they paid back the loans.

He stressed the need for members to develop the habit of savings to establish a better future for themselves during pension. The field service manager called on the District Directorate of Education to undertake an educational campaign in the schools to sell the idea of the importance of the Union to teachers. Mr Philip Asante-Kudom, manager of the Union, advised members to do well to state the actual purpose for every loan they contracted from the Union to allow the loans committee to offer them the necessary counselling to av ert any embarrassment to both the borrower and the lender.

Present at the meeting was Mr Joseph Kwaku Adjei, National President of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr James Kwabena Appiah-Awuah Nkoranza District Chief Executive, Mr Adjei Yeboah, District GNAT chairman and Mr James Edjei Biney, District GNAT Secretary. 23 Feb. 06