Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) has assured its shareholders of dividends so long as it continues on the path of sustainable growth and profit-making.
According to the Board Chairman, Lawyer Alex Barnasko, under his leadership was now heightening the bank’s profit. And in this light, he has assured that with a well laid out strategy, shareholders will soon enjoy dividends from the Bank.
Speaking at ADB’s 33rd Virtual Annual General Meeting held in Accra which was also streamed live for other shareholders due to the current social distancing protocols, he explained that as at the end of December 31, 2016, the Bank had a negative income surplus of GH¢188.8 million, thus, its inability to pay any dividend until the negative income surplus had been completely written off.
“The Bank of Ghana (BoG) regulation requires the Bank to completely write-off accumulated operating losses from its normal operations before it declares dividends,” he added.
He mentioned that though the bank recorded a profit of GH¢14.8 million in 2019, compared to ¢5.9 million in 2018, it is constrained from paying dividends until the accumulated negative income surplus has been completely cleared.
Mr. Bernasko also stated that measures were far advanced to strengthen the bank’s loan monitoring and collection to reduce its high Non- Performing Loans (NPLs) as well as intensifying its retail deposit mobilisation drive.
On interest margins and retail deposit
ADB showed some gains in its interest margin which improved from 55.4% in the preceding year to 61.1% in 2019 while Retail deposit also increased by 31.2%, from ¢2.6 billion in 2018 to ¢3.4 billion in 2019.
“With the strategy put in place by the Board and Management we are on the path of increasing our profit and also reducing our NPLs to make it possible to pay dividends,” The Board Chairman noted.
On the part of the Managing Director of the Bank, Dr. John Kofi Mensah, he disclosed that the bank will intensify its e-commerce products and services.
Upon explanations to shareholders, they also agreed to change the bank’s name from Agricultural Development Bank Limited to Agricultural Development Bank Public Limited Company.
