The Naara Rural Bank in the Kassena-Nankana East District of the Upper East Region has introduced a new banking product known as "Child Education Trust Account", towards savings and payments of children's school fees.
The Chairman of the Bank's Board of Directors, Mr. David Samari, disclosed this during the 19th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank held in Navrongo.
He explained that the purpose for introducing the Child Education Trust was to help parents and guardians to save towards paying their children's and wards' school fees in future.
He said he was not happy that a vast majority of parents withdrew from paying their children's school fees when they got to the tertiary level, and appealed to parents to get enrolled with the facility.
Speaking on the performance of the bank, he said it was able to make a net profit, before tax, of 147,488 Ghana cedis in 2008 as against 84,486 Ghana cedis in 2007, representing 74.57 per cent increase, while deposits in 2008 came up to 3,187,403 as against 2,389,393 in 2007 representing 33.40 per cent increase.
Mr. Samari said the stated capital of the Bank increased from 54,490.00 Ghana Cedis in 2007 to 179,928.00 in 2008 which met the minimum requirement of the Bank of Ghana.
He appealed to shareholders to increase their shares and urged citizens from the area to purchase shares from the Bank.
He indicated that as part of the Bank's social responsibility, it had been supporting the sports, culture, education and farmers' day celebration among others.
He commended organizations including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, and Apex Bank Limited, and announced that the Bank would soon tbe computerized under the Millennium Challenge Account Rural Computerization Project of Apex Bank.
The Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, Mrs. Lucy Awuni, commended the Bank for supporting the farmers' day and for sponsoring needy but brilliant students, and noted that Government was committed to private sector investment and would work through the Ministry of Trade and Industries to facilitate the granting of small scale loans to people, especially women, to undertake businesses.
She urged the Bank to streamline its operation to make it more flexible for customers in the rural areas to easily access loans from them to establish their businesses.
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