Gomoa Afransi (C/R), Nov. 16, GNA - Two "susu" field officers of the Gomoa Ajumako Rural Bank at Gomoa Afransi in the Central Region have embezzled a total of 23 million cedis being monies they collected from customers but failed to pay in to the bank.

Wellington Nyankson of Gomoa Benso and Emmanuel Ananse of Gomoa Obuasi could not account for 18 million and five million cedis respectively.

Nyankson, whose case of misappropriation is pending before a circuit court at Gomoa Dawurampong, has jumped bail, while Ananse has been dismissed after refunding the amount through the efforts of the police.

Mr E.B. Yawson-Essah, chairperson of the Board of Directors, who announced at the 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank at Gomoa Afransi at the weekend, said efforts were underway to track down Nyankson.

He said the susu system of funds mobilisation had proved effective and assured the meeting that stringent security measures had been put in place to curtail future occurrences of the practice.

The Board Chairman announced that the bank made a net profit of 65,888,161 million cedis as compared to 60,779,855 million cedis in 2001.

He said the bank's total deposits raised from 762.5 million cedis in 2001 to 1.2 billion cedis in 2002 and the share capital increased from 41.6 million cedis in 2001 to 67.8 million cedis in 2002.

The bank invested 920.9 million cedis in Treasury Bills in 2002 as against 601 million cedis the previous year.

Mr Yawson-Essah said the bank granted loans to the tune of 722,385,000 million cedis to its customers.

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Emmanuel K. Kwapong, Managing Director, ARB Apex Bank said his outfit was providing training for the staff of Rural Banks in micro-financing methodologies to be able to effectively support the operations of the small-scale customers as a means of supporting the government's poverty reduction programme.

He said ARB Apex Bank and the rural banks were collaborating with the various government programmes such as the Social Investment Fund, the Women's Development Fund and the Village Infrastructure Project to fight the poverty war.