Mr Ernest Appeadu, the Chairman of Board of Directors of the Bank made this known at the 36th annual general meeting of shareholders held at Kwahu Pepease in the Kwahu East District.  He said despite the unstable economic challenges of the country, the Kwahu Rural Bank grew its income from GH¢25,780,594.00 in 2016, to GH¢28,433.219, representing an increase of 10.29 per cent in the year under review.

Mr Apeadu said the Bank’s customers’ deposits also increased from GH¢19,530,229.00 in 2016 to GH¢21,926,996.00 in 2017 representing 12.27 per cent. He said the advanced portfolio of the Bank grew from GH¢9,946,854.00 in 2016 to GH¢12,77,256.00 in 2017 representing an increase of 28.39 per cent.

He described the Bank’s micro-finance sector as the soul of its operations, adding that despite the Bank recording some defaulters in their operational area, it had been able to make headway. In line with the Bank's strategic objective of growing leaders, he said the Board was committed to training and development of human capital to ensure staff efficiency and effectiveness with the ultimate aim of enhancing productivity.

In a speech read on behalf of the Managing Director of ARP Apex Bank Limited, Mr Kojo Mattah, indicated that 94 out of 141 Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) have met the new Bank of Ghana's minimum capital requirements of GHC¢1,000,000.00 and encouraged other banks that have not met the new requirements to speed up with their compliance plan to enable them take advantage of bigger business opportunities in their area of operations. He spoke on the need for RCBs to tighten their Internal Control Process in order to prevent unscrupulous persons from exploiting the weak systems to the disadvantage of the banks.

He urged the Directors of Kwahu Rural Bank to ensure that they abided by the Bank of Ghana (BOG) directives in granting loans to serving directors.   Mr Mattah therefore entreated the Banks to deploy technology in their activities and explained that it had become the key drivers of products, services and processes in the contemporary banking industry.