Awutu Bereku, C/R , – The Awutu Emasa Rural Bank in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya district made a net profit of 22.4 million cedis in 1996 as compared to 6.6 million cedis in 1995. The bank purchased 237 million cedis treasury bills in the 1996 fiscal year as against 66 million cedis in 1995 to strengthen its financial base. Addressing shareholders at the ninth annual general meeting of the bank at Awutu Bereku, Mr M.K. B. Abbey Quaye, chairman of the board of the directors, said the bank introduced strategies to generate immense deposits and this yielded 284.7 million cedis last year as compared to 177 million cedis in1995. The bank granted a total of 317 million cedis as loans to customers in 1996 while in 1995 this stood at 202.3 million cedis. Mr Quaye disclosed that the bank has received a lending loan of 48 million cedis under the rural bank credit scheme from Bank of Ghana and another 35.1 million cedis under community bank credit has been approved. Nana Obatan Otu, president of the central regional association of Rural Banks, called on shareholders to increase their share capital to enable the bank to gain the status of a community bank.
