The Yapra Rural Bank PLC, headquartered at Prang in the Bono East Region, has handed over a three-unit classroom block with ancillary facilities to the Prang D/A No. 1 Primary School.

The project, valued at GH¢390,000, comes as a major relief to the school, which has for years faced acute infrastructure challenges.

The new block replaces a dilapidated structure that previously housed the lower primary pupils.

Prang D/A No. 1 Primary School, established in 1947, currently has a pupil population of 273. The new facility is expected to provide a safer and more conducive environment for teaching and learning in the deprived school.

Speaking at the handing-over ceremony which coincided with the 40th anniversary celebration of Yapra Rural Bank PLC, the Board Chairman, Mr Baabotin Terah Musah, said the gesture reflected the institution’s belief that its mandate goes beyond profit-making to contributing meaningfully to the development of its operational communities.

He noted that the bank had, over the years, demonstrated strong commitment to corporate social responsibility through support for educational institutions, scholarship schemes, and donations of educational and medical supplies.

“After 40 years of rural banking excellence, the bank seeks to make a greater impact in the future. We shall continue to expand to underserved communities under our expansion agenda on financial inclusion,” he said.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Bono East Regional Director of Education, Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi II, expressed gratitude to the bank for its intervention.

“In a region where infrastructure remains one of our biggest challenges, your intervention is timely, impactful and deeply commendable,” he stated.

He appealed to other corporate bodies, NGOs, old students’ unions, philanthropists and benevolent individuals to emulate the bank’s example, stressing that education was a shared responsibility and that community-wide support enhanced learning outcomes.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Pru West, Mr Samuel Agyapong, commended the bank for the support and assured that the Assembly would, as a matter of urgency, provide all the required furniture for the new classroom block to improve teaching and learning.