In May 1971, when the Founding Fathers, ten staff members of the Holy Family Hospital, Techiman, eventually innaugurated the Abosomankotere Co-operative Credit Union (ACCU) in Techiman with an initial savings of GHC27.00 after almost one year of incubating the idea, little did anyone realize that the seed of a giant corporate citizen in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana had been sown.

ACCU, like many counterpart Unions in Ghana, started from humble beginnings with modest objective including the promotion of thrift among members by the provision of facilities for savings and loans to them for provident or productive purpose at a fair or reasonable rate of interest. ACCU’s last objective is the provision of financial counseling to members.

Mindful of the objectives, ACCU set off at a very slow start. Indeed, so slow was the take off between the mooting of the idea by Sister Elaine Kohl, then Administrator of the Hospital, and the actual inauguration of the Union in May 1971, that the then very few members of the Union unanimously adopted ” Abosomankotere ” the Akan word for chameleon as name for the Union. The name characterized the slow start of the Union and was chosen to reassure members that like the chameleon the Union was slated to succeed despite her slow beginnings.

And surely, 47 years on, the Union has enough evidence to convince any doubting Thomas that it has lived up to its bidding and can proudly tell its story to anyone who cares to listen.
Membership of the AbCCU today stands at over 26,000 – a whooping increase of several thousand folds from a low of ten members at inception in May, 1971. Membership in 1996 during the Union’s Silver Jubilee stood at 218 comprising 122 females and 96 males. This was during the tenure of office of Sister Suzanne Maschek as Hospital Administrator. She encouraged all members of staff of the hospital to join the Union. She particularly encouraged senior staff members to get registered because, hitherto, membership was restricted to the Hospital’s junior staff members.

The involvement of the senior staff was really a booster to the mobilization effort as staff across board and their spouses picked up forms to register as members.
Then came the opening of the door of membership to people of the community outside the hospital. Canvassing for members from outside the hospital was seriously intensified after the Union moved into its own building as head office, on the Wenchi road, after the mortuary. The new head office was spacious and actually opened the floodgate for non hospital staff to also join the Union and membership increased exponentially.

The expansion of the Union by the opening of new branches also boosted the membership drive. Membership cuts across all professions, trades and crafts and includes Bankers, Health Workers, Teachers, Farmers, Traders, Businessmen, Corporate bodies and Security Personnel etc.
For the first thirty years of its life, the Union operated from the premises of the Holy Family Hospital,Techiman. However, between 1998 to 2007, during the board chairmanship of Stephen Kofi Aboagye, through that of Charles K. Mounah to Thomas Ansu Effah a plot of land was acquired, a building put on it and officially inaugurated as head office of the Credit Union in 2007. All these happened under the instrumentality of Prosper Aforbu as Chief Executive Officer.

This really invigorated the Union as more new members from far and near thronged to the new office to register. In the sequel, a new branch was established at Kintampo and became operational on January 31, 2012. Following on the heels of Kintampo came the Buipe branch which has been operational since August 10, 2012. The construction of a new branch at Sunyani is now completed and was commissioned on May 2, 2016.

Indeed, the Abosomankotere Co-operative Credit Union will go down in history as one of the most progressive corporate citizens in the Brong Ahafo for the phenomenal improvement it has brought into the lives and businesses of her members. Countless members are now proud of possessing their own houses, educating their children to the highest level as well as establishing crop and livestock farms – thanks to the low interest rate which the Union charges on loans granted them.

For corporate members, the support they have got from the Union is equally overwhelming. It is credited with the provision of loans for the purchase of buses for a number of educational institutions and corporate bodies in the region. These institutions include the Valley View University, Techiman Campus, Holy Family Hospital, Techiman, Adventist Preparatory School, Techiman, St Theresa’ Hospital, Nkoranza, St. Paul’s Methodist Church, Techiman, Mt. Camel’s Preparatory School, El-Goshen and Bethel School Complex all in Techiman.

Other support the Union has provided includes loans to institutions to put up buildings for their activities. Examples of projects funded this way are a lecture Hall at the Techiman Campus of the Valley View University, an Out Patients’ (OPD) and Administration Block at the St. Theresa’s Hospital, Nkoranza, buildings for the Milimed Hospital, Techiman, buildings for the Encom Hotel, office complex for Mid North Ghana conference of the SDA Church, hostel and classroom blocks for the Holy Family Nursing and Midwifery Training School, Techiman, and a building for the SDA Hospital in Sunyani.