Rural and Community Banks have been urged to adopt effective and aggressive credit and deposit mobilization policies to enable them to meet the challenges of the increasingly complex and sophisticated business environment. Mr. Emmanuel Kwapong, Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank said this in a speech read for him at the 22nd Annual General Meeting of Akyempim Rural Bank at Gomoa Dawurampong in the Central Region. He called on rural banks to continue to perform crucial functions of the rural financial intervention that will lead to economic as well as social development and transformation. He noted that the banks needed support from shareholders, regulatory authorities, customers and general public to ensure the successful operations of the banking industry. The Managing Director called on the banks to improve upon their operation in the areas of effective internal control to ensure checks and balances for the observance of basic rules and house-keeping. "It is to avoid the tragic consequences associated with poor internal control or total absence thereof that the ARB Apex bank is encouraging all rural banks to have an internal audit as part of the management structure," he said. Col. Kingsley Kwame Nyame (rtd), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank said the bank declared profit after tax of 922,856 million cedis in 2006 as against 863,317 881 million cedis in 2005. He stated that the bank paid dividend of 60 cedis per share for the year 2005 and 100 cedis per share amounting to 120,627,000 million in 2006. Col. Nyame said the bank granted loans and advances totaling 5 billion cedis to 2,393 customers in 2006 as against 4.221 billion cedis in 2005 for 1,278 beneficiaries. The Chairman noted that the bank's total deposit increased from 13.561 billion cedis in 2005 to 18. 2 billion cedis in 2006. Source: GNA