Anlo Rural Bank grows profit

News & Reports
The Anlo Rural Bank performed creditably well with over 10 per cent profit growth in 2015 over that of 2014. The Board Chairman of the bank, Mr Larry Kwesi Jiagge, said at the 15th annual general meeting that the bank recorded a profit before tax growth of 10.14 per cent from GH¢779,788 in 2014 to GH¢858,891 in 2015.
Total assets of the bank also increased by 37.52 per cent from GH¢9.71 million in 2014 to GH¢13.35 million in 2015.

The growth of the bank, he said, reflected its commitment to serve clients in its catchment area better and its desire to remain one of the best rural banks in the country.

The increase in profit could be attributed to measures put in place to grow loans and investment portfolio, excellent customer service as turnaround time per client had reduced with an efficient utilisation of available resources.

He disclosed that the bank in 2015 embarked on an aggressive deposit mobilisation which witnessed a significant deposit growth from GH¢6.56 million in 2014 to GH¢8.68 million in 2015.

Results

Mr Jiagge said although the rural banking environment had witnessed varied results with quite a number of banks having operational challenges, the Anlo Rural Bank had consistently been rated among the best performing Rural and Community Banks (RCBs).

Low NPLs

The non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio stood at a low ratio of 0.45 per cent which the chairman said was not affecting the operations of the bank, but added that ‘we shall monitor our loans aggressively in order to avoid delinquencies as we grow the portfolio’.

The General Manager of the bank, Mr Isaac Amo-Baning, said the bank would this year expand its operations to Denu and also introduce the ATM machine as part of its operations.

The bank had also introduced a product called ‘Group Lending Scheme’ christened ‘Norvisi’ to offer loans to clients without collateral with the aim of creating jobs for the indigenes and minimise poverty in the catchment area.

Target for 2016

The manager said the bank had targeted GH¢1 million profit before tax margin for 2016 and  would ,therefore, increase deposit portfolio to 50 per cent to achieve the said target.

Achievement

The Anlo Rural bank last year won the ‘Rural Bank of the Year 2014’ award and placed 56th at the 15th Club 100 Awards held last Friday.

The head of legal and compliance of ARB Apex Bank Limited, Mr Curtis W. Brantuo, asked Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) to act professionally and put in place measures to prevent criminals from using their systems to perpetrate crime.

He said the quest for the survival of the bank demanded a fine balancing act between profitability and liquidity, therefore, the bank should work against high non-performing loans (NPLs) to perform better.