The establishment of Nafana Rural Bank Limited was a gracious response by the Government of Ghana. Nafana Rural Bank was incorporated in Ghana on 21st October , 1997, and it was authorized to carry on the business of banking under the banking Act, 1970 (Act 339) on 9th December, 2000.
The personalities who conceived the idea of establishing the bank, (promoters) whose toil and sweat made the idea become fruitful were the;
- late Nana Kofi Sono II
- Nana Ameyaw
- Hon Siaka Stevens
- the former Member of Parliament for Jaman North
- Nana Loppo Kwayie
- Messrs Peter Sawiri
- Peh K. Augustine
- E. Sammor-Duah
- Okrah Kennedy
- Felix Manu
- Kwasi Konkoli
- David Abuu Kofi
- Nicholas Anane (alias Nic)
- Munufie, Simon Sie
- Sah Kum.
The consummation of the idea was a tussle since Suma Rural Bank Limited had already established itself at the headquarters of the bank. All the initial difficulties were surmounted due to the perseverance of the promoters.
The initial share capital of GH¢ 10,000.00 then C100, 000,000.00 was difficult to come by, but the perseverance of the promoters once again prevailed. The promoters struggled to mobilize GH¢ 8,000.00 towards it; one Mr. Musah Mohammed alias “Hellomen” marshaled resources to pay the difference of GH¢ 2,000.00 then C 20,000,000.00 which was a relief to the promoters. This amount was later refunded to him by the chiefs.
After the establishment of the bank, some of the promoters were maintained as directors, and some were also appointed from outside the promoters. The directors who began the bank include among others, Messrs Haruna Maamah, Pascal Essieh, Siaka Stevens and Nana Loppo Kwayie.
The inhabitants of Sampa were so much enthused about the bank and as such on the first day of business, they thronged the premises of the bank in their numbers to open accounts with the bank.
The first manager of the bank was Mr. C. K. Obeng. He was appointed to head the bank in addition to four other staff members who began the upward movement of Nafana Rural Bank Limited.
The bank has chalked successes and had also faced some challenges. Some of the successes include, but not limited to the following:
- The directors and the chiefs were able to mobilize within eight months GH¢ 150,000.000 to increase the capital from GH¢ 30,000.00 to GH¢ 180,000.00. This occurred when the Bank of Ghana raised the capital requirement of rural banks to GH¢ 150,000.00. Whilst the bank was pursuing an agenda of increasing its stated capital steadily, The Bank of Ghana (BOG) in 2017 requested all Rural and Community Banks to increase the minimum Ststed Capital to one million Ghana cedis (GH¢ 1,000,000) at the point in time when the stated Capital of the bank stood at GH¢ 377,400.
- Through the effort of the then Board of Directors and Management, the bank was able to increase its Stated Capital to GH¢ 924,080 in 2017 and subsequently met the required capital in March, 2018.
- The bank has been able to move from a one-agency bank to a five (5)-agency bank.
- There has been tremendous renovation of the bank’s premises.
- The bank has invested heavily in technology over the last five years.
- The bank has seen growth in the customer base as well as a rise in deposit mobilization.
- The bank has been able to develop two key products namely the Micro Finance and Micro Savings which is tremendously increasing the prospect of the bank
The bank in spite of the successes also faced challenges including the following:
- The initial raising of the share capital at the conception stage was really difficult. The chief linguist of Sampa at one time has to use his own house as collateral for an amount of GH¢ 2,000.00
- The bank took a long time in expanding its catchment area.
- The bank has never embarked on any strategic direction.
- Raising of additional stated capital of GH¢ 640,600 within a period of one year as requested by BOG was not an easy task at all.