UE/R- Naara Rural Bank PLC Recorded Profit Before Tax of 53% in 2023 Financial Year

By : Raymond Wegwi.

The Naara Rural Bank PLC in the Upper East Region has organized it’s 33rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) Navrongo, let by the Board chairman ,Rev .Fr. Joseph Aseyire Tabase, the CEO Mr Abraham Musah, the staff and other stakeholders, reported that, despite the challenges of high inflation, depreciation of the cedi, fuel prices, uncertainty in the global economic outlook and the effect of the government of Ghana DDEP,  recorded a Profit Before Tax of GH¢1,641,429 an increase of 53%. Total assets grew from 26.8% from GH¢ 56,778,443 recorded in 2022 to GH¢ 73,710,139 in 2023. Deposits from GH¢ 63,388,085 in 2022 to GH¢ 78,664,339 representing an increase of 24.1% in 2023 while loans and advances grew from GH¢31,606,390 in 2022 to GH¢48,913,604 representing an increase of 54.8% and the stated Capital also grew by 25.4% from GH¢2,153,997 in 2022 to GH¢ 2,700,634 in the year under review. According to the board chair, human resource development is also, remains a key component of their strategy and the board promised to continue to develop and build the capacity of staff members to enable them deliver good services to customers, and the bank is also in compliance with the RCBs Corporate Governance Directives. In terms of corporate social responsibilities in 2023, Naara Rural Bank PLC spent a total of GH¢ 42,500 in the areas of education, health, agriculture and social activities and still committed to supporting the people in its operational areas as the future of the bank is very promising and only need the people too, to buy more shares and for BOG to also reduce the corporate tax of 25% to 15 % for the RCBs.

The President of Association of Rural Banks (ARB),  Upper East Chapter, Mr Atintono Francis observed that banking in general and the RCBs in particular are highly regulated business and therefore requires leadership and management to be up to speed with relevant regulations, procedures, and practices that would ensure sound and resilient rural banking ecosystem and to achieve this requirement, he said the need well-informed governance practices couple with effective and efficient leadership of the banks through effective supervision, regulation and constant interaction of stakeholders adding that, because of that they have been organizing training for all of them and urged them to always participate fully. He lamented about the challenges facing the sector, that RCBs used to pay 8% corporate tax but since 2015 the have been levied a whopping 25 % on their profits which is gradually killing RCBs, because the little profits declared by the RCBs which would have been ploughed back into operations to meet the capitalization requirement as well as to finance other expansion projects of the banks, are being paid to government by way of this tax and called for reduction. For the way forward, he entreated the Banks chairs and directors, to foster conducive and friendly environment in their catchment areas, identify key and critical projects to support and develop tailor -made products and services that serves the needs of the people to attract businesses and individuals to them.

The Managing Director of ARB Apex bank, Chief Alex Kwasi Awuah, commended Naara Rural Bank PLC for being one of the largest loan disbursements made by a single Rural and community bank in the northern sector, demonsting that, the bank has prioritized its core mandate of credit extension to businesses and equally pleased with the 53 % increase in profit before tax, total assets climbed by29.82% , and overall performance of the bank in 2023. He underscored the importance of digital banking and stated that,  because of that they have introduced a mobile banking solutions to RCBs customers,  such as cash withdrawals, wallet- to -account transfers and vice versa, bills payments, account balance checks and statement requests by dialing *992# and have also started distribution of 1,500 point of sale (PoS) devices to lessen supply-side limitations while reducing the costs of  opening brick and mortar branches, because RCBs customers would not have to travel far to obtain banking services at physical branch locations. Chief Awuah added that Internet banking applications are also in advanced stage and will improve the RCBs’  customer experience once they are fully operational and implored all banks that are currently not on the ARB Apex bank and RCBs platform to quickly come back and be part of the new innovative solutions.