……posts 962% growth in profit
Okomfo Anokye Rural Bank PLC at Wiamoase in the Sekyere South District of Ashanti Region, having made determined effort to put the bank back on the path of growth and profitability, has recorded impressive growth in all indicators.
The bank recorded a profit before tax of approximately GH¢1.33million in the 2021 year under review from a loss of about GH¢154,320 in the previous year, representing an impressive growth of 961.45 percent. This is an unprecedented profit before tax, and this is the first time the bank has crossed GH¢1million profit in its history.
In spite of the challenges of the macroeconomic environment, the bank returned to the path of profitability as a result of prudent measures by the directors and management to compete favourably with other rural banks to satisfy shareholders’ expectations.
The bank achieved this feat after devising an operational strategy for growth, recovering overdue loans to control the wearing-away of profit by highly expected credit loss as part of the growth strategies.
The board and management spared no effort to improve the loan quality portfolio of the bank, which in turn boosted its profitability and reduced expected credit loss.
The bank’s deposit grew by 14.12 percent from GH¢81.9million in 2020 to GH¢93.4million in 2021. The achievement was as a result of hard work and dedication of management and staff of the bank as various deposit mobilisation strategies were embarked upon during the year.
The size of the bank’s Balance Sheet increased by 15.35 percent in 2021 from GH¢88.4million to GH¢102 million. The slow growth was as a result of the havoc caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which affected the economic growth.
Fixed Assets increased slightly by 9.77 percent in 2021 as against 10.25 percent in 2020 during the year from GH¢6.1million in 2020 to GH¢6.7million in 2021.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Kennedy Obiri Yeboah, announced these and more at the bank’s 35th Annual General Meeting of shareholders held last Friday at the Salvation Army Church Auditorium at Wiamoase in the Ashanti Region.
Operational environment
According to him, foreign exchange reserves increased from US$8.6billion in December 2020 to US$9.7billion in December 2021 (4 months of imports). The Ghana cedi depreciated further against the dollar in 2021 by 4.1 percent after 3.9 percent in 2020, both years due to foreign exchange demand – supply mismatches.
The banking sector remained strong in 2021 with a capital-adequacy ratio of 20.8 percent at end June 2021, nearly double the regulatory minimum of 11.5 percent. Poverty declined from 12 percent in 2020 to 11 percent in 2021, given GDP per capita growth of 2.3 percent from a contraction of 1.7 percent in 2020. However, unemployment increased by 2.3 percentage points to 13.4 percent in 2015 – 21. The country has committed the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation of US$1billion to finance the 2022 budget deficit.
Operational performance
Despite the unfavourable macroeconomic environment in which the bank operated during the 2021 reviewed year, the bank managed to pull yet another remarkable operational performance in all the financial indicators as shown in the table.
|
INDICATORS |
2021 | 2020 | PERCENTAGE CHANGE (%) |
| Deposits | 93,485,214 | 81,917,212 | 14.12 |
| Investment | 51,368,389 | 40,353,812 | 27.30 |
| Loans and Advances (Gross) | 34,222,823 | 29,912,420 | 14.41 |
| Fixed Assets (Gross) | 6,711,622 | 6,114,406 | 9.77 |
| Total Assets | 102,010,949 | 88,439,280 | 15.35 |
| Stated Capital | 1,495,459 | 1,483,759 | 0.79 |
| Shareholders Fund | 4,040,234 | 2,980,414 | 35.56 |
| Gross Income | 16,885,300 | 12,763,052 | 32.30 |
| Expenditure | 15,555,913 | 12,917,372 | 20.43 |
| Profit before tax | 1,329,387 | (154,320) | 961.45 |
Dividend
The Board did not recommend dividend payment for the 2021 financial year based on the Bank of Ghana’s Directive (Notice No. BG/GOV/SEC/2020/03) dated 12th April, 2020 directing all Banks and Specialised Deposit Institutions to desist from declaring and paying dividend.
Corporate social responsibilities
The bank continues to offer assistance to communities and institutions within its catchment areas in terms of community development projects. In the year under review, the bank spent an amount of GH¢58,574 on corporate social responsibility activities toward the stakeholders, with special focus on Education, Health, Security, among others.
Rated strong by ARB Apex Bank
Okomfo Anokye Rural Bank PLC was rated ‘strong’ by the Efficiency Monitoring Unit of the ARB Apex Bank Plc for the first and second quarters of 2022. This was the first time in the history of the bank to attain this feat. The bank took the 32nd position out of the 145 RCBs in 2nd quarter of 2022.
Future outlook
The CEO of the bank, Paul Kwabena Oduro, in an interview with the Business & Financial Times, said Management would continue to seek ways of strengthening and developing the bank’s operations to maintain the confidence that customers and shareholders have in the bank.
The bank’s business model, according to the CEO, is still tailored for the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, and would push for more market penetration as they develop new and innovative products and trusted relationships with clients of the bank.
