He said the bank continued its vision of creating value for share­holders and excelled in all the key performance ratios of the banking sector.

Speaking at the bank’s 40th Annual General Meeting to present the 2022 Annual Report to share­holders at Ajumako Owane in the Central Region at the weekend, Dr Mensah said the bank posted a profit after tax of GH¢274,722.

He said operating income in­creased to GH¢5.750 million from GH¢4.885 million in 2021, repre­senting a 17.67 per cent growth.

“The bank recorded a significant growth of 21.06 per cent in its total deposits of GH¢24.99 million in 2022 compared with GH¢20.57 million in 2021,” he said.

The Board Chairman said the bank’s loan portfolio increased to GH¢16.23 million in 2022 from GH¢12.87 million in the previous year, representing a growth of 26.13 per cent.

“The bank maintained the re­quired benchmarks (even above the benchmarks) for Capital Adequacy Ratio, Primary and Secondary Reserves throughout the 2022 ac­counting year,” Dr Mensah added.

The board chairman said the bank in the ensuing year would continue to ensure operational efficiency, motivate staff, grant quality loans, intensify deposit mobilisation, reduce cost and in­crease profit and thereby maximise shareholders’ wealth.

He said the opening of outlets of the bank, particularly the one at Mankessim, had improved its deposit mobilisation and expanded its services.

Dr Mensah disclosed that there were, therefore, plans to open new branches within the Central Region to meet the increasing financial demands of customers.

On the way forward, the Board Chairman said among other actions the bank was focusing on the recovery of non-performing loans, adding that “We have instituted strong measures to strengthen our loan monitoring and collections and credit risk management has been strengthened.”

“I remain confident the bank will continue to innovate to aggres­sively grow to create value for our shareholders and customers,” Dr Mensah stated.

In spite of the strong perfor­mance, the board chairman said the bank could not pay dividend to shareholders due to a directive from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

He, however, gave the assur­ance that the bank had set aside GH¢109,888.80 to be paid as dividend should the BoG give the approval.

In spite of the assurance, some shareholders expressed worry about the non-payment of divi­dend, with one of them saying that “some of us use the dividend to buy more shares, its non-payment will stop us from responding to the appeal to us to increase our shares.”

In a speech read on his behalf by Mr Eric Okyere, Central Regional Manager of the ARB Apex Bank PLC, Mr Alex Kwasi Awuah, the bank’s managing director, praised the performance of Enyan Denky­ira Rural Bank.

“Although your profit is modest, it puts the bank in the league of a few RCBs which remain profitable in the face of the unending eco­nomic challenges,” he said.

There were other speeches, including that of Mr Arkhurst Yamoah of the Central Regional Chapter of the Association of Rural Banks.