By Rachel Horner

Marampa Masimera community bank has attained an operating profit of Le168 million in fiscal year of 2007, far encouraging when compared to Le 98 million in 2006.

This was disclosed by the board chairman Syl A Khanu at the second annual general meeting of stakeholders at the Baptist eye hospital in Lunsar.

“The bank achieved a net profit of Le96 million after the allocation of Le71 million as loan loss reserve which shows a strong trend for operational sustainability of the bank for its continuous service in the future,” Khanu said.

He observed that the bank was able to mobilize Le960 million deposits from the public and has a total of 1937 account which includes savings and current accounts.

Khanu noted that the bank current liabilities are 171%.

He said the bank's authorized share capital is Le 800 million and that the major weakness of the bank is a very low amount of share capital by the community but pointed out that the bank's major earning asset is the loan port folio.

On behalf of the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) Edmond Kangaju said the bank is the leading community bank in terms of operational performance. He said BSL feel proud of MMCB and admonished management of the bank to continue the good work.