Teachers fund to establish a bank

Modest gains have been made by the Teachers Fund of the Ghana National Association of Teachers to establish the first ever bank that will be owned by a group of public servants by 2010.

To realise this dream, the Fund Administrator, Rosalyn Darkwa, says all the relevant preparations will be gradually carved out to ensure that the Bank of Ghana's requirements are met to have the bank established.

Working towards this medium term objective, Mrs Darkwa disclosed that the Fund has set up a finance house called TF Financial Services which is schuduled to commence operations within the year.

The TF Financial Services, according to her, is to "offer loans to salaried workers and businesses in the private and public sectors."

The Fund Administrator explained that the establishment of the finance house is the initial step towards the establishment of the bank.

Mrs Darkwa made this disclosure at a public lecture to mark the 10th Anniversary celebration of the Fund in Tamale. The event was also used to inaugurate the newly constructed Northern Zonal Office of the Fund in Tamale which will take care of their operations in the three Northern Regions.

Collaborating government's efforts in addressing the acute accommodation problem being faced by the nation's universities, the Fund Administrator announced that the Fund has almost completed the construction of a 1000-bed hostel facility at the University of Ghana, saying plans are far advanced to invest in student hostels in other universities across the country.

The Teachers Fund, since its establishment in 1998, has attained a valued of approximately GH¢31.1million, while a total of GH¢31.18million has been disbursed under the personal loan fund within the period among its 150,000 members.

 The Fund is also said to be included in the top twenty major shareholders of the almost all the best performing stocks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

 As part of its five-year strategic plan, which is between 2006-2010, management has outlined a number of initiatives to enable the Fund consolidate its position as a "formidable financial institution committed to making life more meaningful for the teacher and to make the profession highly attractive to the future generation."

The Trustees of the Fund say they are currently looking at facilitating the provision of affordable housing for teachers who are contributors to the Fund.

 According to the Fund Administrator, they are "exploring collaborative efforts with some mortgage financing institutions and the government's affordable housing initiatives to enable teachers own houses."

 The underlying objectives for establishing the Fund was, among other things, serve as a retirement supplement scheme for teachers who are members of GNAT, provide lifestyle enhancing facilities such as loans to its contributors and to provide access to consumer credit facilities from the Credit Mall Ltd.