Bosomtwe Rural Bank records 23% average growth
The Bosomtwe Rural Bank Limited has posted a remarkable operational performance in the 2017 year under review with an average growth of 23 per cent in all indicators.
With this significant growth, the board of directors of the bank has recommended a dividend payment of GH¢0.040 per share for 2017 as mandated by Section 73 of the Companies Code of 1963, Act 179.
This means for a share price of 10 pesewas, a dividend payment of four pesewas would give 40 per cent return to the shareholder.
Delivering the chairman’s report at the bank’s 28th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of shareholders at Kuntanase last Wednesday, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr Osei-Boateng, said the total amount to be paid to shareholders as dividend for 2017 was approximately GH¢945,000 as compared to GH¢663,000 which was paid in 2016, representing a growth of 42 per cent.
He indicated that the bank’s deposit went up by 19.5 per cent from about GH¢45 million in 2016 to GH¢ 54 million in 2017.
This, he said, was achieved through the hard work of the staff in deposits mobilisation and inculcating effectively the culture of saving in the people.
“The board is determined to continue to formulate strategic policies and plans which would improve upon the bank’s deposit base whilst mitigating any corresponding risks,” he said.
According to him, the bank registered satisfactory growth in all financial indicators despite the unfriendly challenging macroeconomic environment in which it operated in the 2017 period under review.
“The macroeconomic indicators of Ghana’s economy did not favour businesses, leading to high cost of service delivery with very minimal marginal returns even though inflation started dropping in the last quarter of 2017.”
“Expectedly, the rising cost of living had left customers with no option but to slow the pace at which they had been keeping their excess funds with the bank. These have significantly reduced demand for credit facilities, and had also brought about relative potential of default rate,” he added.
In spite of the challenging macroeconomic and political environment that pertained during the reviewed year, Mr Osei-Boateng said the Bank’s Loans and Advances Portfolio also increased by 19.9 per cent from GH¢15 million in 2016 to about GH¢18 million 2017.
He added that the bank’s paid-up capital also increased from GH¢ 1.47 million in 2016 to a little over GH¢2 million in 2017, representing an increase of 40 per cent which was over and above Bank of Ghana’s mandate of GH¢1 million for Rural and Community Banks.
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The increase, he said, was driven by the new share purchases which was GH¢586,078.
He, therefore, appreciated shareholders’ patronage for the purchase of the bank’s shares, adding however that it had been observed with some regret that there were some shareholders whose shareholdings were too small to earn them reasonable dividends.
He, therefore, invited all existing shareholders to endeavor to increase their shareholdings so that they could maintain the community ownership of the bank and to help the Bank to stay above the regulator’s mandatory requirement and in effect make Bosomtwe Rural Bank one of the strongest rural banks in Ghana.