ARB Apex Bank recorded a profit before tax of ¢5.9 million during the financial year, 2020 despite the impact of covid-19 on the economy.

The bank’s pre-tax soared by 482%, from ¢1 million recorded in 2019.

According to the Managing Director, Kojo Mattah, activities in rural banking increased despite the advent of covid-19 pandemic.

He also revealed that rural banks increased their deposits, despite the covid-19 pandemic.

“We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm in the activities of Rural and Community Banks (RCBs). Their deposits have grown significantly in 2020, up to about ¢5.5 billion,” he said.

Board Chairman, Dr. Anthony Aubyn accounted to shareholders, some investments made by the ARB Apex Bank.

“Your bank continued to invest heavily in infrastructure to support the smooth running of our RCBs. Beside the $8 million funding from the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank, the board recently approved additional $1.2 million to support the upgrade of the data centre and the disaster recovery site to avert any interruption in the operations of the RCBs,” he disclosed.

Meanwhile, Deloitte and Touché, independent auditors, has stated that the bank kept proper accounting records and has complied with provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008.

“In our opinion, proper books have been kept by the bank so far as per my examination,” he stated.

The 19th Annual General Meeting was climaxed by a book launch.

The book, “Together for Progress”, is authored by the first Managing Director of the bank, Emmanuel Kwapong.