Amenfiman Rural Bank is increasing financing to Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to create job opportunities in its catchment areas.

Over 25,000 business owners are captured under the bank’s microfinance scheme, benefiting from over GH₵154 million disbursed in loans to the sector.

Chief Executive Officer, Dr Alexander Asmah, explained that the bank continues to offer business advisory services to these enterprises to ensure they stay afloat.

“We bring the people together, they are given financial education and trained. They are then given money to enter into business or expand their businesses”, he told Joy News on the sidelines of the bank’s Annual General Meeting held at Wassa Amenfi. 

The move is also expected to help build local economies through support for MSMEs which is in line with its core mandate of financial intermediation.

Already, the bank is targeting productive sectors of the economy to grow its revenue as the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme takes a toll on some investment opportunities.

“We are pushing a lot of funds into the productive sectors. We believe that it is not even safe for a bank to put most of its money into investments because government has declared its inability to pay its commitment to bonds. As a bank, we have strategically positioned ourselves to push money towards the productive sectors of the economy”, Dr Alexander Asmah explained.

The bank’s 2022 annual report indicated a profit of over GH₵8million, 10.4 percent higher than the amount recorded in 2021.

Total deposits grew to over GH₵557 million from GH₵401 million. Total assets also went up by a variance of GH₵159.3 million, a 38.6 percent increase over the previous year. Operating income and Investments grew by 25.4 and 11.4 percent respectively.

Cash and bank balances increased to GH₵173.9 million, representing a significant growth of 232.5 percent.

Dr Asmah says strategies to help businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic shocks have yielded satisfactory results.

Meanwhile, the bank’s present loan portfolio at the end of the year was reduced by GH₵914,000 due to a change in focus to short-term lending.

Dr Asmah says the strategic change has allowed for more businesses to benefit from the support.

“Because they are small loans they don’t have a long tenure. The customers take it for less than a year and by the time they finish paying, they are able to apply for another one. What you see in the report is not the total loan we granted for the year, it is rather the loan portfolio remaining as at the end of the year”, he added.