A total of GH¢2,944,958 has been disbursed to 1,750 cocoa farmers in the Prestea/Huni-Valley District in the Western Region by the Fiaseman Rural Bank Limited at Bogoso, the district capital.
The money is to enable the farmers to embark on expansion of their farms and improve production programmes.
Under the bank’s Nnoboa Cocoa Scheme, the beneficiary farmers have also received farm inputs and training in farm management through the support of an experienced technical team.
The recovery rate of the system, which the bank has put in place to provide financial and non-financial support to cocoa farmers within its catchment area, is 100 per cent.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Nana Amanfo Edu VI, who disclosed this at the 27th annual general meeting of shareholders at Bogoso, gave an assurance that the bank would this year increase cocoa loans to a GH¢1,000,000.
He disclosed that notwithstanding the economic challenges in the country, the bank posted a profit before tax of GH¢2,851,541 in 2014 as against GH¢2,502,768 in 2013, saying it was the biggest-ever profit made by the bank since its inception in 1983.
He further indicated that the bank continued to remain committed to providing superior returns to its shareholders.
Consequently, he said the board had recommended a total dividend of GH¢606,922 as against last year’s amount of GH¢532,971, representing 23 per cent of the net profit in 2014.
The dividend per share is GH¢0.051 compared to GH¢0.02 paid in 2013, a considerable growth of 155 per cent. The bank’s stated capital increased from GH¢282,444 in 2013 to GH¢402,353 as of December 31,2014, a rise of 42 per cent over 2013.
Nana Edu again said the share price of the company remained GH¢0.20 while total deposit liabilities increased from GH¢30,108,802 in 2013 to GH¢33,806,562. Loans and advances grew by 26 per cent from GH¢12,970,495 in 2013 to GH¢16,412,229 in 2014.
The board chairman also said total investments increased by 14.53 per cent from GH¢15,327,611 to GH¢17,555,350 and that investments in government securities accounted for 60 per cent of total investment as a result of prudent decisions to comply with regulatory requirements and also to maximise returns to shareholders.
Total assets of the bank increased from GH¢39,372,423 to GH¢46,412,145, yielding18 per cent growth.
Nana Edu disclosed that through a partnership arrangement with the management of Golden Star Resources, Wassa Mine, the bank had provided a total seed fund of GH¢350,000 to support the resettlement programme for more than 220 project affected persons (PAPs) at Togbekrom as a result of an activity by the mining company.
Source: ghanaweb
