ARB Apex Bank grows assets to GH¢1bn
The ARB Apex Bank posted growth in its total assets to GH¢1 billion in 2022, up from the GH¢702.3 million recorded in 2021.
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This represented over 47 per cent growth and was largely influenced by significant growth in deposits which went up by 63 per cent from GH¢621.6 million in 2021 to GH¢1 billion in 2022.
While investments of the bank saw an increase from GH¢405.8 million in 2021 to GH¢432.4 million in 2022, overall operating income recorded growth of 37.9 per cent from GH¢78.2 million in 2021 to GH¢107.8 million in 2022.
Speaking at the bank’s 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Board Chairman of the bank, Dr Anthony Kwesi Aubynn, said the bank operated under challenging economic conditions.
He said some of the challenges were high inflation rate, significant depreciation of the Cedi, uncertainty in the global economic outlook and the effect of the government’s domestic debt exchange programme (DDEP) which generally impacted the performance of the bank.
“However, the participation of the bank in the government’s DDEP resulted in significant impairment loss of GH¢113.6 million, leading to a loss before tax of GH¢103.5 million at the end of December 2022.
“Notwithstanding the difficult times, the bank performed creditably during the year under review. Total assets grew by 47.0 per cent from GH¢702.3 million recorded in 2021 to GH¢1.0 billion in 2022,” he said.
Major turnaround
The Managing Director (MD) of the bank, Alex Akwasi Awuah, added that this year’s projections were pointing to a major turnaround in the fortunes of the bank.
“And all things being equal, we shall report a net profit for the coming financial year. We hope that the government can honour maturing coupons on every bond going forward so that our plans are not jolted,” he stated.
Initiatives
Mr Awuah announced that the bank’s Financial Sector Development Project (FSDP) was gaining momentum.
Currently, he said Train-the-Trainers and User Assessment Test (UAT) for the USSD Banking solution had been completed.
He added that all 5,000 pieces of the Point of Sale (PoS) devices had also been procured and shipped into the country.
Due to the progress made so far, Mr Awuah was optimistic that the Mobile and Agency Banking Applications would be deployed by the end of the fourth quarter of this year, while the Internet Banking Application will be ready by the first quarter of next year.
He, therefore, urged all RCBs to stand in readiness for the launch of the project, which is expected to bring more delight and convenience to customers and bring a major turnaround in the fortunes of the RCBs.
To ensure that the Cash-In-Transit (CIT) and personnel were protected from miscreants in the society, Mr Awuah said the bank had taken delivery of three armoured bullion vans which had been placed in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western regions.
He said the bank was awaiting the next batch of eight which would be distributed among the remaining regions.
“This shall pave the way for the full implementation of our species management services. This will enable us to provide cash-in-transit services to our banks which will not be in the position to comply with the armoured bullion vans’ directive from the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Police Service,” Mr Awuah stated.