GCB declare higher dividend despite drop in pretax profit
Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), recorded a pre-tax profit of GH₵361 million for the financial year 2015.The figure is however, nine per cent lower than what the bank achieved in 2014 which stood at GHC395 million.
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This came to light at the bank’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Accra.The bank attributed the dip to the industry’s-wide credit deterioration during the year under review.
Assets of the bank also grew from GH4,259 million in 2014 to GH₵ 4,659 million in 2015.
Dividend payment
The board recommended a cash dividend of GHC33 pesewas per share, representing a total payout of GH₵ 87 million for the 2015 financial year.
By this move, the bank would be paying three per cent more than the GHC32 pesewas per share it paid in the 2014.
Shareholders were delighted by the move and expressed the hope that by the next AGM, the bank would perform well to increase their dividend.
Speaking to the Graphic Business in an interview, the Acting Managing Director of the bank, Mr Samuel Sarpong, stated that, the bank performed well despite a very challenging financial year.
“One challenging area that we had was the treasury income which was low as well as the impairment that had occurred on one major customer”, he noted.
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This situation according to him, did not pertain to only the bank but to other financial institutions in the country.
“GCB giving the accounting requirement had to capacity to impair the full amount of this particular loan and recovery efforts are ongoing to retrieve the monies owed the bank”, he added.
On his part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank, Mr Daniel Owiredu, described the future of the bank as bright.
He said in itsr quest to make the bank modern and offer superior experience to its customers, branches are being refurbished. The bank has also invested in information technology to offer front-line technology to its clients.
The banks according to him, would continue to support and intervene in the social needs of the people in the country as part of its corporate social responsibility.
“The bank continues to invest in people and communities with the view of ensuring a better and more sustainable life in our community”, he noted.
Way forward
The chairman anticipated that the low commodity prices, the strengthening of the United States dollar and the difficult conditions in the international bond markets would slow growth in developing economies.
These he said would put undue pressure on the country’s economy and should it happened further adjustments in the fiscal and external imbalances maybe required.
Three directors who were retiring by rotation were re-elected at the meeting. They were, Ms Faustina Nelson, Mr Kwasi Okoh and Mr Kofi Worlanyo.