Sekyere Rural Bank Limited; making versatility and innovation a key focus for growth

Sekyere Rural Bank Limited was set up and commissioned in 1983 at Jamasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The role of the Bank is to play an intermediary role between surplus fund holders and those in need of funds for their economic activities in the communities in which the bank operates.

Sekyere Rural Bank Limited is dedicated primarily to the mobilization of resources from its operational area for on lending to individuals savers, small and medium scale enterprises. The bank is registered under Ghana’s Companies Code 1963, Act 179 as amended Companies Act 2019, (Act 992) and operates under the Banking Law, 2004 Act 73 as amended Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act 2016, Act 930 to operate the business of banking. The nature of the businesses that the Bank is authorized to carry out are:

• The provision of Current and Deposit Accounts for customers
• To act as agent for other financial institutions in the country
• To Accept and Discount Bills of Exchange
• To act as Executors or trustees of wills for people in the community
• To provide finance for farmers, small and medium scale enterprises
• Safe keeping

VISION                              

To be the rural bank of choice

MISSION

To be a unique bank, propelled by a motivated workforce, customized products, better banking services, to give value to our shareholders.

CORE VALUES

• Higher Standards
• Innovation
• Due Diligence
• Partnership with Stake holders

OUR TARGET MARKET

Our primary focus is to provide tailor made solutions and wide range of financial services to the unbanked and under banked within the rural and peri-urban communities by mobilizing surplus funds from the communities and channeling such funds into the productive sectors of the economy.

The bank supports retail customers, small and medium enterprises, micro unit institutions, and farmers to ensure accelerated economic growth and development in the communities in which we operate with a prime aim of alleviating poverty in the short term and eliminating same in the long run.

 PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Savings Products:

• Current Accounts
• Savings Accounts
• Fixed Deposits
• Susu Savings Accounts
• Medaakye Savings (Investments Account)
• Bronya Anidaso Savings
• Aku Sika Group Savings

Loans and Advances

• Overdrafts Facilities
• Salary Advance
• Commercial Loans
• Salaried Loans
• Credit Line
• S- Smart Loan (Controller Loan Product)
• X’mas Loan
• Group Loans (Aku Sika)
• Susu Loans
• Funeral Loans
• Fast Track Loan (FT)
• Agric Loan
• Development Loan (DL)

Other Services

• Domestic Funds Transfers
• Western Union Money Transfer
• Advisory Service (Trust, Investment)
• Agent for the ARB Apex Bank and other Financial Institutions in the country
• Safe-Custody Services (Bailment Agreement)
• Executors and Trustees for Wills

DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

The bank currently has nine (9) Vibrant & fully networked branches across the region and has its head office located in Jamasi. The branches are as follows:

• Jamasi
• Agona
• Ntonso
• Mamponteng
• Ahwiaa
• Kronom
• Afrancho
• Abrepo Junction
• Mensah

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The affairs of the bank are directed by the following able and competent Board of Directors:

Noble Dr. Francis Denteh                       – Board Chairman

Mr. Osei-Assibey Bonsu                         – Vice Chairman

Kwame Owusu Sekyere, Esq.                 – Board Secretary

Mr. John Amoah                                     – Member

ACP Nana Bediako-Poku I (Rtd.)            – Member

Mr. Kofi Boateng Oduro                         – Member

Miss Constance Asamoah                        – Member

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT

The bank prides itself with a well-qualified, professional and competent Executive Management team:

Michael Aidoo                         – Chief Executive Officer

Prosper Badu                           – Deputy General Manager, Operations

James Owusu -Ansah               – Deputy General Manager, Finance and Administration

1. Krobea Asante – Manager, Risk and Compliance

Muntala Mohammed               – Manager, Audit

Simon Aboagye                       – Manager, Microfinance

Ulric Ofori Asare                     – Manager, IT

Samuel Opoku Ware                – Manager, Credit

Esi Ampiah Adu-Gyamfi        – Manager, Human Resource

Percy Sydney Annan               – Manager, Marketing

Maxwell John Adu                  – Manager, Administration

 

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

Sekyere Rural Bank Limited has been recording impressive year-on-year performance in some key performance indicators as depicted below:

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS	SEP. 2021	SEP. 2022	INCR./(DEC.)
Deposit	130,811,459.92	140,199,379.81	9,387,919.89
Investment	70,385,985.53	70,747,250.01	361,264.48
Loans/Advances	43,413,674.41	49,584,993.74	6,171,319.33
Share Capital	2,232,527.99	2,276,322.99	43,795.00
Total Assets	148,114,087.21	158,894,492.44	10,780,405.23
Profit Before Tax	1,266,696.39	1,497,109.17	230,412.78

 

AWARDS

As a result of our outstanding performance, Sekyere Rural Bank has won so many awards, locally and internationally. The bank was awarded the Best Bank in Digitalization by the Association of Rural Banks, Ghana at the just ended Biennial General Meeting in Koforidua.   Six Gold Awards have been won at the Ashanti Financial Services Excellence Awards, held under the auspices of the Manhyia Palace, Kumasi.

The bank won an International Gold Award on Quality, Innovation and Excellence during the 2012 BID Century International Quality ERA Convention in Geneva, Switzerland.

Another award was also won in Best Practices Award in Excellent Performance, instituted by the Chartered Institute of Financial and Investments Analysts – Ghana.

The bank was awarded Platinum (International Arch of Europe) for Quality, Leadership, Technology and Innovation in Frankfurt, Germany.

Through our effort in the recent development in the banking industry in migrating customers to a mobile banking system, we were awarded the Best Bank in Digitalization for being the RCB to have registered the most clients on the GhanaPay platform at the just ended Biennial General meeting of the Association of Rural Banks which took place in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The contribution of the bank towards socio-economic development of the country, through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been enormous. Our CSR contributions cut across several sectors, including health, education, security, agriculture, etc.

To mention a few, the bank single handedly built a big Police Post for the Ghana Police Service at a strategic location in-between Jamasi and Asante Mampong scalp, where armed robbers attack was rampantly experienced by several commuters. Since this onerous intervention by Sekyere Rural bank, cases of armed robbery have now become a thing of the past in the area.

The bank prides itself as an institution that applied its initiative to build and fully furnish a 50-seater ICT Centre for the Interbeton JHS in Agona Ashanti, to uplift ICT education at the school. It has annually supported the National Farmers Day Celebration by providing items and equipment’s to Municipal and District Assemblies within its catchment areas to be awarded deserving farmers.  The bank has also donated several quantities of branded exercise books in support of the Otumfour Educational Fund, other schools, and also sponsored educational quizzes, among others.

Additionally, the bank did some donations as part of its CSR activities to help bring some relief within our education sector of which few are outlined below;

• Fifteen (15) packets of roofing sheet to St. Joseph Catholic Junior High School at Jamasi
• Fifty (50) desks (both dual and mono) to the Boanim Technical Senior High School
• A printer and a box of A4 sheet to the Afigya Kwabre North District Education Office
• Fifteen (15) desks to the Jamasi S.D.A Primary School

With all these done one will say that Sekyere Rural Bank is really making waves into its operational area and beyond with its corporate social responsibilities. But because we see ourselves as family from the society and living within it, we intent to give more and indeed we gave more.

The bank recently built and furnished a security post for the Jamasi Health Center to improve security at the hospital.

The bank once again, donated four (4) table top fridges to the four districts; the Afigya Kwabre North and South, Kwabre East and Sekyere South toward Farmer’s Day celebration within the afore mentioned districts.

Again, the bank built a bathhouse for the Boys’ Dormitory at the Adu Gyamfi Senior High School. The bank have also helped the Ntonso MA Junior High School with the roofing of it toilet facility. This has given some facelift to these schools and restores some sanity with these issues. The installation of intercom system, donation of laptop and a system unit was given to the Afigya Kwabre South District Education Office for some smooth running of the office.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2023

• Excellent customer service.
• Introduction of new products and repackaging of existing ones that will meet the needs of our customers.
• The use of innovative ways to sell the bank’s products through digitalization.
• Offer lending to its customers at very moderate lending rates.