The Adansi Rural Bank at Fomena in the Adansi North District, raked 233,742.67 Ghana cedis as profit excluding tax, in 2007, representing an increase of 26 per cent of the previous year's profit of 184,775.22 Ghana cedis.
The bank also increased its operational income by 39 per cent, from 738,762.75 Ghana cedis to 1,025,482.96 Ghana cedis during the same period.
Mr Ahmad Kwame Boakye, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, announced these at the 18th Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of the financial institution at Fomena in Ashanti on Saturday.
He said shareholders fund went up by over 30 per cent, from 534,516.66 Ghana cedis to 698,242.87 Ghana cedis.
Mr Boakye said the bank mobilized deposits of more than four million Ghana cedis, representing an increase of 30.6 per cent of the 2006 deposit of 3,283,578.13 Ghana cedis.
He explained that the increase in deposits were due to newly established relationships and enhanced deposits of existing customers.
Mr Boakye said the bank would continue to look for innovations to consolidate the bank's profits margin.
He announced that the bank has increased its loans and advances to over 2.6 million Ghana cedis with over 1.2 million Ghana cedis going into micro credit sector.
Mr Boakye said "Mindful of the perceived vulnerability of women and their exclusion from credit facilitation, the bank sought to empower women by granting loans to 3,970 women out of 7,070 customers to the tune of 1,803,055 Ghana cedis, representing 64 per cent of the total loans granted".
He said that the bank raised its total assets from 4,136,000 Ghana cedis to 5,701,000 Ghana cedis with investments increasing from 1,616,000 Ghana cedis to 1,667,000 Ghana cedis.
Mr Emmanuel Yaw Sarpong, Head, Banking Operations Department of the ARB Apex Bank, commended the bank for its remarkable achievements over the years.
He said "I specially wish to commend Adansi Rural Bank for its excellent performance during the half year to June 2008. The bank was rated satisfactory in every respect by our Efficiency and Emergency Unit (EEU) quarterly performance review".
Mr Sarpong said from all the financial and performance indicators used in assessing rural and community banks, Adansi Rural Bank was a "strong bank" despite the challenging economic environment.
Source: GNA
