Abdul-Issaka Bamba is the new board chairman of Ghana Airports Co-operative Credit Union

The management and board of directors of the Ghana Airports Company Co-operative Credit Union has sworn-in Mr. Abdul-Issaka Bamba as its new board chairman.

Mr. Bamba until his new appointment was the Divisional Chairman of Public Service Workers Union.

He took over from Mr. Felix Akrugu Amoah, his predecessor.

Mr. Bamba was sworn into office at the occasion of the Union’s 2nd Annual General Meeting held at the transit Lounge, Terminal 2 Extension Building, Kotoka International Airports, Accra on Thursday, December 23, 2021.

“I accept this honor to become the next chairman. Taking the objectives of the Credit Union and the current state of our company into consideration, I pledge to lead us all to work together with more determination and commitment to move the society and the company forward”, he hinted while receiving the honor.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Abdul-Issaka Bamba underscored the need for all staff of the Ghana Airport Company Limited to lend their support to the credit union to achieve the purpose for which it was established.

Bemoaning some of the ills thwarting efforts in achieving the set goals of the credit union, Mr. Bamba averred that he was taken aback when on daily basis, quite a number of people are exiting the union without any tangible reason.

“Withdrawal of membership can only hurt our collective efforts and I’m aware of the efforts made by my predecessor to curb this practice therefore I wish to promise my commitment towards this cause”,

“In my capacity as the board chair, I’ll try to bring together the board, members of the credit union and leaderships of the division union maybe with the support of the management to educate our people” he intimated while assuring of his support to avert the canker”.

He observed that most of the time , people are not able to make the difference between credit union’s that are very much regulated compared with the normal welfare associations which inform their decisions to exit the credit union.

The Ghana Airports Company Co-operative Credit Union was established with the mission to provide competitive and high quality financial products and related services for members at a reasonable cost in order to build a sustainable co-operative financial institution based on sound business principles.

It envisions itself to be a distinctive credit union among financial institutions by partnering with our members to commit to the co-operative principles and credit union systems.

The move to establish the credit was conceived by the Divisional Union years ago when it became clear that access to credit by the general staff of the Ghana Airports Company Limited was becoming a challenge. The plight of staff were further compounded by the highest interest charged on loans by the commercial banks.

It is against the backdrop that, on January 12 2016, the Divisional Union following an executive committee approval set up a three member committee chaired by Bright Atsu Dogbey, the Divisional Union 1st Trustee, Patrick Mensah, the Divisional Union Secretary and Nana Kwame Adu-Boampong from the Finance department to draw up a proposal for the establishment of the Ghana Airports Cooperative Credit Union.

The Divisional Union supported the idea with an initial seed money of 25,000.00 Ghana cedis and provided all operational and logistical expenses for a successful take off, subsequently the bye-law was drafted and adopted at general staff meeting, where it was agreed that a year moratorium be placed on all forms of disbursements, to allow for the growth of the funds.

In his remark, the outgoing board chairman, Mr Felix Akrugu Amoah hinted that the total membership of the union has grown from the initial 440 to 910 with many more expressing interest of joining especially after the decision to extend membership to cover the staff of other agencies operating at the airport.

He disclosed that his outfit is not reneging on membership drive therefore working assiduously to be the most attractive credit union ably positioned to address the needs of its members.

“It is worthy of mention that, since inception we have recorded some separations by way of retirement, resignation from the company, voluntary withdrawals and unfortunately death, I must say all their benefits have been paid”, he noted.

Touching on the financial report spanning 2019-2020, Mr. Amoah noted that the Union has met all the targets set and indeed in several areas exceeded them.

According to him, the financial performance of the union meant that the board was able to execute its mandate of driving high performance even in the midst of COVID-19.

The report for the year ended December, 2020 shows that the credit union posted profit as the table refers:

Governance Structure

The Credit Union has a 5 member Board of Directors, 4 of which are elected by members/shareholders and a chairperson appointed by the Divisional Union. The board exercises its oversight duties mainly through its sub-committees: Advisory and Loan. The board provided leadership of the credit union within a framework of controls, which enabled risk, to be assessed and managed.

The board also set up the loan thresholds, categories of savings, as well as standards and ensured clear understanding of the union obligations to the members.

The Ghana Airports Company Co-operative Credit Union was inaugurated by the National Executives of the Public Services Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress and the Management of the GACL on April 14, 2017 paving way for official business to commence

Objectives

To promote thrift among its members by providing a means of savings.

To provide loans to its members for provident or productive purposes at fair but competitive rate of interest

To provide quality financial services to its members and to invest funds of members efficiently among others.

Present at the meeting were senior executives, and managers of the Ghana Airport Company Ltd, representatives of the Ghana Credit Union Association (CUA-G), members and union executives.

Source:Joseph Wemakor|Ghana24.org 

About The Author

Ghana24

See author's posts