By Our Correspondent

Kaski, Feb. 14 : The 14th annual general meeting of Garima Development Bank has elected Shyam Prasad Basyal as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The general meeting held in Pokhara on Friday elected a six-member board of directors including Basyal for the next four-year term.

Dr. Anand Prasad Shrestha and Dipendra Shrestha have been selected members from the founders and Sanjeev Dhakal, Saraswoti Pathak and Bimal Pandey from the general public of the board of directors. The outgoing chairman is Chandra Kant Baral.

The bank has Rs. 54.51 billion in deposits and Rs. 46.85 billion in loans investment, said Govinda Prasad Dhakal, chief executive officer of the bank.

The bank has 906 employees in 106 branches so far.

Bank to provide 13.5% cent bonus shares.

The general meeting has decided to give 13.5 per cent bonus shares to shareholders.

The bank has a paid-up capital of Rs. 3.23 billion, of which 13.5 per cent will be issued as bonus shares of Rs. 437.23 million.

Outgoing chairman Chandra Kant Baral said that the bank has also approved a proposal to distribute cash dividend of Rs. 23 million.

The net profit of the bank has decreased by 2.89 per cent to Rs. 577 million in the current fiscal year compared to last year thanks to COVID-19.

The non-performing loan ratio of the institution has also been affected due to COVID-19.

CEO Dhakal informed that the non-performing loan has increased from 0.20 per cent to 0.87 per cent in 2019/20.

Company Secretary Madhav Prasad Upadhyaya said that the bank has invested in many sectors including agriculture, tourism, industry and business on the basis of the principle of diversification to reduce the risk.

The bank has also felicitated the best branch this year with cash.