FIRST NATIONAL SAVINGS OPENS BRANCH IN SUNYANI (PAGE 20, JAN 07, 2010)

One of the greatest challenges facing the Government is how to reduce poverty, increase employment and reduce the drift of the youth from the rural areas to the urban centres.
Professor Kwasi Nsiah-Gyabaah, Rector of the Sunyani Polytechnic (S-Poly), who made the observation pointed out that availability and access to credit was one of the surest ways and means of addressing those challenges.
“In the Brong Ahafo Region in particular, where small-scale farming and agriculture-related activities are the main sources of income and employment, the need for credit is most crucial during the farming season to enable farmers expand their farms and increase productivity”, he noted.
Prof. Nsiah-Gyabaah was speaking at the inuaguration of the Sunyani branch of the First National Savings and Loans (FNSL) company at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The First National Savings and Loans company is a wholly-owned Ghanaian financial institution, licensed by the Bank of Ghana.
Prof. Nsiah-Gyabaah further observed that at a time when armed robbery was on the increase, the culture of savings needed to be promoted so that people would not keep their money at home or carry large amounts on them to transact business.
According to him, fraud could also affect the fortunes of a financial institution, since sometimes, banks also failed in their duty to provide sound business advice to their customers, while some customers also refused advice from bank officials and misapplied funds on activities which were not profitable.
The S-Poly rector also advised the financial institution to keep its interest rates low and give more loans to women, especially single parents who shouldered huge responsibilities of taking care of their children and family.
The Financial Manager of the institution, Mr Samuel Addo-Nortey, said within the short period of three years that the bank started its operations, it had been able to attract 42,677 customers and disbursed GH¢23.97million to its clients.
The financial manager further said the FNSL had assisted farmers in the Akuapem South and Gomoa districts in the Eastern and Central regions with loans totalling Gh¢2.87million, to boost food production. He said the bank was prepared to extend similar assistance to farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region to expand their farms and yield, thereby, improving their earnings and reducing their poverty level.


He said the FNSL had a network of 20 branches located in all the 10 regions of the country, and that plans were far advanced to open five more branches next year, to bring the total to 25 in 2010. “This is in fulfilment of our vision to be the ‘People’s Bank’,” he said.