Mr Frank Fuseini Adongo, the Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, made the commendation during the bank’s 17th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held at Sandema in the Builsa North District.

“The Regional Coordinating Council was happy to note that about 70 per cent of these smallholder farmers who were supported with grants were empowered with the value chain approach ”, he said.

The beneficiary farmers were drawn from Builsa North, Builsa South, Talensi, Nabdam and the Mamprugu  Mogduri Districts which form part of the Bank’s operational area.  

Whilst lauding the effort of the Bank for facilitating to pay 20,000 beneficiaries under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Mr Adongo urged the management of the bank to support the government in the implementation of its flagships programmes including the “One Village One Dam” and the “One District, One Factory” programmes.

He urged the bank to undertake vigorous financial literacy campaigns to increase the knowledge of   people in financial systems and to also encourage them to develop the culture of savings and investments.

Naab Akanab Apoom-Weem, the Board Chairman of the Bank, explained that despite the rise of inflation last year, coupled with the election, the BUCO Bank was able to make significant gains.

He said the Bank was able to make a profit, before tax, of GHC 526,234 and total assets of GHC 20,767,103 placing it 60th out of a total of 141 rural banks nationwide.

He said through the bank’s collaboration with the USAID –FinGAP Grant Agreement, the livelihood of a significant number of smallholder farmers within the Bank’s operational areas has improved.

The Board Chairman said during the year under review, the Bank also spent an amount of GHC 20,662 on development projects as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility and noted that as a result of its good performance it had been granted permission to provide  ATM services .

Alhaji AwuduI Hayatudeen , the General Manager of the Bank,  said his outfit had consistently paid its dividends to its shareholders and appealed to the general public to patronize the service of the bank by savings and buying shares.