CUA plans to acquire other unions

The Ghana Co-operative Credit Unions Association (CUA) Limited, the umbrella body of credit unions in the country, wants to merge or acquire some financially distressed unions within the association to be able to serve their customers better.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CUA Limited, Nana Kwasi Agyepong, who announced this, said the decision was part of the new initiatives the association was employing to build a stronger and vibrant credit union system in the country.

That, he said, would also go a long way to grow the level of confidence in the sector.

“We encourage the smaller credit unions within the same community to join; so don’t be surprised when we knock at your doors to take over some smaller credit unions for the benefit of the membership,” he said.

Nana Agyepong was speaking at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Hydro Co-operative Credit Union Limited at Akosombo in the Eastern Region.

Initiatives

In March this year, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced the licensing of co-operative financial institutions across the country to enable them to stay in business.

“CUA is committed to building a strong and vibrant credit union system and make credit unions primary financial institutions of choice within the next three years,” nana Agyeman said.

He indicated that the association also had plans to employ technology to enhance its service delivery through the establishment of an inter-credit union transaction platform.

Financials

Membership of the Hydro Co-operative Credit Union increased from 1,164 to 7,170 for the year under review, a figure Nana Agyepong described as a massive increase.

That eventually translated into the net surplus of the over GH¢4 million in 2016 to over GH¢5 million in 2017.

Its assets also increased to over GH¢53 million from the GH¢40 million recorded during the previous year.

Proceeds from shares issued saw an increase of 1.2million from 857,527 for the period.

The loan portfolio had, however, risen from GH¢19 million to over GH¢22 million during the 2016/2017 financial year.

The board of directors also proposed a dividend amounting to GH¢745,676 at the next AGM.

Nana Agyepong commended the members and leaders of the Hydro Co-operative Credit Union for the performance, and urged the leadership to do more to increase the membership.

“My appeal at this point is to encourage all members to join hands to grow the membership of the credit union, as well as increase the savings base of the union,” he added.