Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) for the year 2020 recorded profit growth of 4.4 percent.
In monetary terms, the recorded growth saw the bank’s profit increase to Ghs 439 million.
This is in spite of some Ghs 219 million recorded loan loss by the bank for last year largely due to the coronavirus pandemic, which compelled the bank to restructure some loans.
According to the bank in its 2020 Audited Financial Statement, the loan loss impacted its total income despite recording significant growth in all of its income lines.
The bank’s net interest income grew by 22 percent year-on-year to Ghs 1.4 billion, while trading income also shot up by 17.5 percent year-on-year to Ghs 166 million.
With regards to dividend payments, shareholders on the back of the growth in profit will enjoy some Ghs 1.66 pesewas earnings per share, higher than what was received last year.
The balance sheet continued to remain strong as its size grew to Ghs 29 billion in 2020 compared to a little above Ghs 22 billion the previous year.
With regard to the robustness of the bank, non-performing loans went up by 2.7 percent to 8.71 percent, but far below the industry average of about 15.3 percent.
GCB’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) was also way above the industry average at 20.7 percent.
