GCB Bank pays dividend to shareholders despite dip in earnings
The GCB Bank has paid a dividend of 33 pesewas per share to its shareholders despite a dip in its earnings at the end of the 2015 financial year.
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The amount which is a three per cent rise represented a total payout of GH¢87 million against a payment of 32 pesewas per share in 2014 which amounted to GH₵ 85 million.
In the year under review, the bank recorded nine per cent drop in its basic and diluted earnings per share from GH¢1.06 in 2014 to GH¢0.96 in 2015.
The payment of the 33 pesewas per share was approved by shareholders of the bank at its 2015 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra after the board of directors had presented a financial statement to them.
Performance
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Mr Daniel Owiredu, said the payment of the shares was to “satisfy the expectations of shareholders even in a year in which the general economic environment was less supportive.”
In 2015, the bank recorded operating revenue of GH₵ 863 million, which is an increase of GH₵132 million more than the GH₵731 million recorded in 2014.
Operating expenses in 2015, according to the bank. were kept under control as compared to the cost incurred by the bank in 2014.
In 2015, the bank recorded cost of GH¢426 million which was one per cent less than the GH₵428 million incurred the previous year.
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However, an industry-wide initiative credit deterioration in 2015 affected the bank, necessitating an increase in a charge for loan loss of GH¢93 million compared to GH¢24 million in 2014.
The bank declared a pre-tax profit of GH₵361 million in 2015, an amount which is nine per cent less than what was achieved the previous year.
Profit after tax was GH¢255 million, which was 10 per cent lower compared to that of 2014.
In the year ahead, Mr Owiredu said the bank would continue to pursue its transformational agenda of becoming the top performing bank in Ghana through modernising its operations by investing in IT infrastructure and increasing its market share.
The move, he said, would enhance shareholders value and enable the bank to offer better services to its customers.
Balance sheet
For his part, the acting managing Director, Mr Samuel Sarpong, said the bank’s balance sheet size increased by nine per cent from GH¢4,259 million in 2014 to GH¢4,659 million at the end of 2015
That, he said, was as a result of the growth in customer deposits from GH¢₵ 3,075 million in 2014 to GH¢₵ 3,361 million in 2015.
Shareholders
Some shareholders expressed concern over some operation strategies of the bank, which they claimed would affect the fortunes of the bank and asked the management to address them.
A shareholder who was not happy that customers who withdrew cash below a certain amount from the banking hall were charged for doing so said that might cause customers to move to other banks.
“This is a bad policy. The bank claims the strategy is to decongest the banking hall and also to encourage customers to use the ATM. I do not want to be a doomsday prophet but if we don’t do something about it customers will move. Are we going to sit for it to happen?”, he asked.
Another customer, Mr Samuel Dadzie, who commended the management of the bank for recovering some debts on its books, asked for more to be done to recover all bad debts, while the bank complied with the Bank of Ghana guidelines in that regard.
He said since the bank spent more than 50 per cent of its operating expenses on its staff “it shows the board is taking very good care of the staff and I want to say that to whom much is given much is expected.”
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