ADB to divest investments in four companies
State-owned universal bank, the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) has revealed plans of divesting its investments in four companies in the country.
Making the disclosure at the bank’s 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Board Chair of ADB, Alex Bernasko, noted the bank’s decision is in compliance with the Banks and Specialised Deposit Taking-Institutions Act, 2016 of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
The Act makes it clear that a bank must not have investments or shares in other corporate bodies other than the subsidiary(s) of the bank.
Hence the ADB’s investments and shares in other corporate bodies is a clear violation of the Act.
Companies such as the Ghana International Bank and Metro Mass Transit (MMT) are among the four companies in which ADB has investments. ADB holds 9 percent and 16 percent in Ghana International Bank and Metro Mass Transit (MMT) respectively.
In a related development, ADB last year – 2020 – increased its ranking in the banking industry.
The bank climbed up three places to place 17th from a previous position of 20th out of the 23 banks in the country.
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The bank’s improved ranking reflected improvements in the bank’s relevant indices as the bank for the year 2020 posted an astonishing 441 percentage points increment in profits.
Its profit grew from Ghs 14.8 million end-2019 to Ghs 65.4 million end-2020.
The increment in the bank’s profit for 2020 was on the account of increments in the bank’s net interest income and operating income.
ADB’s total assets value also saw an increase of some Ghs 1.2 billion on a year-on-year basis, as total assets value increased from Ghs 4.5 billion in 2019 to Ghs 5.7 billion in 2020.
The bank’s loan asset quality over the period from 2019 to 2020 improved, with Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) amounting to 34 percent of total loans made end-2020 as against the 41 percent of total loans recorded end-2019.
