Toende Rural Bank has commissioned an ultra modern bank facility in Bolgatanga, the capital of the Upper East Region.Toende Rural Bank which is headquartered in the Bawku West District, aims at becoming the leading bank in agriculture and small business financing in Northern Ghana.
In the quest to fulfill the dream of the bank, the Board Chairman of Toende Rural Bank, Dr. Ayembilla Joseph Ayagbilla on behalf of the Board of Directors, Management, staff and customers of the bank commissioned an ultramodern banking facility in Bolgatanga on Monday, June 14, 2021 to bring banking closer to the door steps of the people.
Dr. Ayembilla Joseph Ayagbilla in his commissioning statement said ‘’On behalf of the Shareholders and staff of the bank, I want to present the bank we dreamed of at the cost of Ghc1.3million cedi’s fully funded by the shareholders”.
The bank was established in March 9, 2004 at Zebila in the Bawku West district of the Upper East Region with the aim of bringing banking closer to t the people of that area who previously had to travel to Bolgatanga to access banking services.
After 17 years of operations, the need to spread its service to other districts within the region became eminent thus their recent move to establish a bank in Bolgatanga, the regional economic hub.
Toende Rural bank is on a mission ‘’ to provide; quality, competitive, accessible, affordable, banking service and products to clients aimed at maximizing profit and improving wellbeing’’
It is the vision of Toende Rural bank; ‘’ to become a strong and reliable life changing leading financial institution that guarantees financial independence for our stakeholders’’ they provide services such as; Salary, Salary advance, CAGD loans, Small businesses, SMEs loans, Farmers, Agriculture loans, Women Groups, Microfinance loans, Susu loans, Religious Development loans for Religious bodies.’’
In line with their vision, the Manager of the newly commissioned Bolgatanga branch, Mr. Atorka Salifu Gande explained that; ’’ The commissioning of this agency is in fulfillment of our commitment to get closer to individuals and businesses operating in our catchment areas by providing better customer experience and convenient banking services in a friendly atmosphere. The layout of our agency encourages easy and fast flow of customers through our banking halls for personal banking services and offer a conducive environment for business discussion.’’
Over the years Toende Rural Bank has supported women groups with loans and grants with the sole aim of making them financially independent. In the first quarter of 2021 alone they have supported 51 women Groups within Bolgatanga Municipal, Bolgatanga East, Nabdam and Talensi districts respectively with an amount of GHS 4,500,000.00 Microfinance loans.
Upper East has majority of its people engaged in agriculture, so farmers and people within the agriculture value chain have not been left out of the packages of the bank.
The bank has also put in place various monitoring strategies to ensure that farmers use the loans they have taken from them for the purpose for which they were granted. Explaining some unique services that The bank renders to its customers, the bank manager speaking to Word FM news said they “ do cashless financing of the Agriculture sector, this means that we pay for the cost of plowing, we pay for the fertilizer, weedicides, we pay for the farm inputs and convert them into loans for the farmer so that the farmers do not divert the funds into other things and this has given us close to 100 percent recovery of loans all year round’’
The Board of Directors of the bank also disclosed that it has plans to establish branches in Binaba, Sapeliga and other areas in the coming years according to the .
‘’ History will tell us that the next one we should be commissioning would be at Binaba and Sapeliga, that is the wish of our shareholders’’-the Board Chair hinted.
The Board Chair also ceased the opportunity to shower words of praise to the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly for providing them the land to put-up the edifice and to invite the people of Bolgatanga to make Toede Rural Bank their one stop shop for banking services.
By: Wisdom Adekurah/mywordfmonline.com