Royal Bank Launches TRB Foundation

Alhaji Adamu Iddrisu and Dr K.K. Sarpong cutting the tape to launch The Royal Bank in 2012

In its quest to give back to society and improve the lives of the underprivileged, The Royal Bank (TRB) has outdoored a foundation with the primary objective of providing 50 boreholes in 50 deprived communities across Ghana.

Alhaji Adamu Iddrisu, a business tycoon and founder of TRB, who launched the TRB Foundation assisted by Dr K.K. Sarpong, board chairman of the bank at a colourful ceremony in Accra, said a lot of communities in Ghana's countryside face problems in finding potable water hence the establishment of the Foundation to help solve the crisis.

He said the TRB Foundation seeks to champion social activities and communal projects that would create a positive impact on the communities in which it operates.

The foundation has contracted a global haulage company to provide drilling machines for the exercise in selected water communities.

In a speech, Dr Sarpong said the setting up of the foundation was in line with TRB's corporate vision of effecting real difference in Ghana's banking industry.

Managing Director of TRB, Robert Kow Bentil, in a comment, said the TRB Foundation is aimed at encouraging the bank's positive impact on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and the public.

He mentioned focal areas of the TRB Foundation as health, water and sanitation, education, culture and sports.

David Okyere Nyarkoh, Head of financial Control and Strategy at TRB, noted that funding for the activities of the foundation would come from various sources.

'First the bank will make an annual budgetary provision for the operations of the foundation. The quantum of the annual provision shall be determined by the board of the bank.

'The founder believes that as the bank makes some profit annually, it needs to transfer a portion of that into the foundation,' he averred.

He said even though the board of TRB might allocate a percentage of the bank's profit-before-tax for the activities of the foundation, the staff would also make monthly contributions to the foundation.

A business desk report