Pharmacists co-operative union holds AGM

THE Ghana Co-operative Pharmacists Credit Union Limited has held its 2007 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra with a call on the leadership to put in place measures to increase its membership.
Speaking at the meeting the General Manager of CUA, Mr Emmanuel Oduro Darko, said the influx of both banking and non-banking financial institutions into the country posed a lot of challenges to the operations of the union in the country.
These challenges, Mr Darko said, required that credit unions, particularly the Ghana Co-operative Pharmacists Credit Union recruited more members as its low membership was not helping the union.
Mr Oduro Darko noted that credit unions were being confronted with high competition from commercial and rural banks, NGOs, savings and loan companies and insurance companies, among others, trying to win over their members into their fold.
The end result, he said, was moving members of the unions into economic slavery by these financial and non financial institutions as their only interest is to make profit with their hidden charges on the loans they take from them.
"We must be very careful, we should advise our members to appreciate and support their own financial institution and allow the institution to assist them to grow socially and economically on a sustainable basis" he said.
Mr Oduro Darko encouraged the leadership to increase the volume of business by effectively marketing the credit unions for members and potential members to increase their savings.
He also called for the introduction of new products based on the needs of their members and transparency in their operations.
In his report, the chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr G.A. Boateng, said the performance of the union in the year under review in its core strategic areas was average as most of their operational results fell below the CUA standards and their own projection for the year.
Mr Boateng said the net surplus of the union was GH¢28,747.10, down from GH¢29, 360. 00 in the previous year, representing a two per cent drop.
He said even though their total assets grew from GH¢1,109,133.18 in the previous year to GH¢1,257,333.39, representing a 13 per cent increase, it fell below the projection of the union which was at 20 per cent.
Mr Boateng attributed the fall to some economic factors, such as fuel price hikes, reduction of borrowing rates and high cost of operation,these he said worked against the operations of the union in the year under review.
"The combination of these factors, coupled with our own internal problems, particularly loan delinquency affected the income generating capacity and profitability of the union.
Mr Boateng inform members of the board's intention to introduce a Business Support Loan amed at providing financial support to members to enable them to expand their businesses.