It has come to the notice of Upper Amenfi Rural Bank of a news publication by the New Crusading Guide on November 9, 2021 with the headline “Fraud @ Upper Amenfi Rural Bank….Customers Demand Funds, Call For Bank’s Closure”.
According to the story, Management of the Upper Amenfi Rural Bank Ltd has been accused of cunningly defrauding its customers, impoverishing many and leaving them with serious economic and social hardships, hence a call to authorities to close the bank.
The Upper Amenfi Rural Bank would want to unequivocally state that there is no precedence of fraud against any of our cherished customers or whatsoever to warrant such publication which sort to draw the image of the bank into the mud.
The bank has not charged any customer fictitious or unexplained bills or charges (interest rate). The Bank’s interest rates for each loan category are conspicuously displayed on all notice boards of the Bank. Upper Amenfi Rural Bank does not charge any fraudulent fees on customers’ loan facilities because it is mindful of Bank of Ghana directives on interest rates and the bank’s own policy on interest rate.
The Bank would like the public to know that the aggrieved complainant in the story is Albert Anarfi, a customer. It is on record that he did not receive his GH¢15,000 entitlement through our bank as claimed in the story. At the time he received his entitlement, he had already changed his account from the Bank without clearance letter from us.
Per the story, he mentioned a debt of GH¢8,000 but it is his own figment of imagination and the facts at the bank do not support his claim. At the time he came to make his first loan repayment at the Bank, the total outstanding balance of his loan and overdraft was GH¢21,440.23.
However, he rather came to the Sefwi Bibiani Branch for his loan balance as well as the overdraft. After the Branch Manager provided him with the balances, he started ‘misbehaving’ in the Banking hall that he had been charged high interest which was not the case and he vowed to collapse the bank since he had a malicious mind about the bank before coming for his outstanding balance.
It is also a false claim that he was compelled to seek additional loan of GH¢5,340 to settle his debt. The Bank did not advance any additional credit facility to the customer since he had diverted his salary account from the Bank. The Bank demanded from the customer the repayment of the loan he took since the facilities had already expired. The Bank however gave him some time to settle which he did justice to that by paying all the outstanding loan balance on 18th October, 2021. As stated earlier, his entitlement was not paid to the Bank neither does the customer has no money with the Bank.
The Bank also wants to clarify that it has not demonstrated any sign of gross arrogance to any journalist as opposed to the content of the publication. A gentleman came to the Bank to introduce himself as staff of an independent press without any means of identification. He started complaining about high interest rate that we have charged on the customer’s loan and overdraft facilities which the customer was not happy about. So the Bank told the self-acclaimed Journalist to allow the Bank deal directly with the customer.
After listening to the customer, the Bank assigned the responsible loan officer to take the customer through the repayment schedule which the customer had already defaulted for better understanding/clarity but the customer declined to speak with the loan officer. The customer however went away.
The Bank rather realized that the customer who made the report attempted to defraud the Bank. He contracted a loan from the bank and changed his account from the bank without notice. The customer made up his mind not to pay but the Bank through its monitoring on the loan was able to trace the customer to demand repayment of the loan. The customer thought he could circumvent our system but he was exposed. He was compelled to settle the loan or face the consequence.
We want to emphasize that, the bank is very strong and has good relationship with its customers and other stakeholders. To our valued and cherished customers, no management member has indulged in any fraud, nor has any customer been cheated or charged with high interest rate on any facility.
The Board, Management and Staff wish to reaffirm our dedication and commitment to our valued and cherished customers, that they should look forward to continuing doing business with us and we will continue to provide them the exceptional services that the bank stands for.
