ASUTIFI RURAL BANK MAKES STRIDES (GRAPHIC NSEMPA, PAGE 5, FEB 1, 2010)

By Akwasi Ampratwum-Mensah, Sunyani.

ASUTIFI Rural Bank Limited in the Brong Ahafo Region was established in the early 1980s as a financial institution initially to serve the people of the Acherensua Traditional Area and its immediate environs.
 It was proposed by the Omanhene, Agyewodin Adu Gyamfi Ampem, who surcharged each household in the community to provide the initial share capital (seed money) to set up the bank.
Some individuals in the community also purchased shares and at that time, the maximum value of shares any individual could buy was GH¢10,000 (GH¢1,000
The total share capital required to open a rural bank was ¢30 million (GH ¢3,000 today).
The Bank has its head office at Acherensua and started operations in September 1984 with a skeleton staff trained by the Wamfie Rural Bank Ltd.
The staff was drawn from the community. They included teachers, typists and school leavers while the members of the board of directors were mainly opinion leaders, traditional rulers and teachers drawn from the community.
Unfortunately, some of these people were illiterates and semi-literates who lacked the basic understanding of the operations of banking.
The bank drew its customer base from Acherensua and the immediate environs.
For the first twenty years of the bank’s existence, it did not register any significant growth in most of its performance indicators due to initial teething problems.
At a point in time, the bank could not pay interest on deposits.
With time the board of directors, management and staff teamed up to surmount some of the challenges in the areas of capacity building, technological advancement and the adoption of best financial practices and today the bank is making giant strides in its operations.
Despite the challenges in 2008, the bank recorded some gains in its performance in capital adequacy ratio.
Secondly, total deposit of the bank marginally increased by 0.55 per cent from GH¢832,523.34 in 2007 to GH¢837,137.09 in 2008 but the total assets decreased by 4.3 per cent from GH¢1.35 million in 2007 to GH¢1.29 million in 2008.
The bank’s investments in treasury bills and other short term instruments stood at GH¢400,000.00 in 2008, showing an increase of 125.05 per cent from GH¢177,736.00 in 2007, while advances (Loans and Overdraft), also stood at GH¢607,233.99 in year 2008, representing a decrease of 8.52 per cent as against GH¢663,805.00 in 2007.
Its profit before tax stood at GH¢56,370.26 in 2008 as against GH¢33,448.44 in 2007, registering an increase of 68.53 per cent.The income surplus account, which stood at GH¢35,813.56 in 2007 decreased by 50.28 per cent to GH¢17,805,51 in 2008 as a result of the board’s decision to recommend a transfer to stated capital.
The bank managed to build the share capital from GH¢2,270.00 in 2001 to GH¢69,742.82 in 2008
It is the objective of the board that, by the close of this year, the shortfall of about GH¢30,257.18, would have been met to meet the Bank Of Ghana’s (BoG) minimum stated capital requirement of GH¢150,000.00.
Based on the above situation, the board did not recommend the payment of dividend for 2008.
With a relatively unstable base rate by the BoG, the bank will have to respond accordingly, like all other banks, by maintaining a carefully tracked lending rate and improving the interest rate on deposits to remain competitive.
The catchment area of the bank will continue to be an attractive financial market for both small and large financial institutions due to the gold mining activities in the Ahafo area. With the fast changing phase of banking in the country, the Asutifi Rural Bank ought to adapt to current dynamics and the tide of e banking.
It has to respond by investing in e-equipment and e-infrastructure such as computers, scanners, and the installation networks, while banking halls must have to be made computer friendly, and the environment face lifted.
To maintain comparative advantage and safeguard the interest of shareholders and other stakeholders, the bank plans to continue to ensure good corporate governance and good ethics.
It is the bank’s aim to ensure compliance with the statutory requirement of BoG and ARB Apex Bank, and improve customer care and service as well as enforce internal control measures and strengthens the Internal Audit Unit.
In 2008, the credit department of the bank recovered a total of GH¢32,487.03 bad debts and overdue loans.
As Asutifi bank celebrates its near success stories over the period, it is expected that, the current board, management and staff will appreciate the sacrifices and the commitment of their predecessor teams and work towards raising the image of the bank.