Mr Kofi Adomakoh, the Managing Director of GCB Bank PLC, has intimated that the Bank’s stellar performance in the year 2021 is a testament that the Bank’s ambitious strategies aimed at dominating the market is on course.
Mr. Adomakoh noted that the Bank’s strategic ambition is to be the dominant player in the financial market and the best by every measure anchored around three strategic pillars of revenue growth and profitability, operational excellence, people and talents.
The MD disclosed that GCB Bank posted an impressive financial results with profit before income tax increasing by 34 per cent in 2021. That’s, growing from GH¢ 602 million in 2020 to GH¢810 million last year. He added that the Bank also increased its total asset from GH¢15.5 billion in 2020 to GH¢18.3 billion in 2021, representing a growth of 18 per cent.
This impressive performance, Mr Adomakoh asserted, was achieved at the height of COVID-19.
“Prior to the advent of COVID-19, the banking businesses have been disrupted by technology, but COVID-19 also shocked the bank into accelerating the execution of its strategies and plans.
“GCB Bank is currently the largest retail bank with a strong asset base, but despite the bank’s stronghold in the retail market, a key part of our strategy is to expand our market share within the retail market space. The bank has therefore, revamped its technology, improved its human resources, and strengthened organizational rigour.”
Mr Kofi Adomakoh
GCB Bank to Improve Its Performance in Corporate Banks Segment
Mr Adomakoh further indicated that the Bank is also seeking to improve its performance in the wholesale and corporate banking segment by deepening the bank’s share of wallet.
On people and talents, Mr. Adomakoh noted that the bank has restructured, improved its human resources, and also brought in critical human resources to execute key elements of its strategy.
“The banking landscape has evolved and GCB’S grand agenda is to deliver strong value to its shareholders through excellence in every facet of the Bank’s operations.”
Mr Kofi Adomakoh
Mr Socrates Afram, Deputy Managing Director of Finance, GCB Bank, also opined that an integral part of the bank’s performance was driven by real growth in the bank’s deposit base.
“The profit performance was achieved on the back of strong balance sheet growth underpinned by customer deposits growth. Deposits growth funded increased investments in earning assets like investment securities, loans and advances and interbank placements which generated the required interest income to boost revenue.
“Aggressive recovery efforts also helped in releasing suspended interest into income from recoveries made on non-performing accounts.”
Mr Socrates Afram
Mr Afram added that one of the cardinal approaches to GCB Bank’s strategy was to “digifirst”, and as such, a business optimization unit was set up to identify redundancies and identify all processes that can be digitalized to make the bank nimbler and more responsive.
Mr. Afram added that going forward, the bank will strengthen the credit underwriting processes and vigorously monitor and pursue customers for credit facilities granted to ensure they perform under the credit terms to significantly reduce impairment and Non-Performing Loans (NPLs).
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