GHANA COMMERCIAL Bank (GCB) Limited has announced an offer of GH¢0.06 as dividend per share to its shareholders for the 2008 financial year.
The company posted a net profit of GH¢37.59 million for the year under review as against GH¢32.87 million for 2007.
With profit-before-tax reaching GH¢49.71 million, GCB recorded a surge in customer deposits from GH¢839.4 million in 2007 to GH¢1,030.1 million in 2008. This represented a 22.7 percent growth.
The bank achieved an appreciable growth in shareholder equity. Earnings per share for 2008 was GH¢0.142 compared to GH¢0.124 in the previous year. Shareholders fund also appreciated from GH¢176.9million to GH¢207.7 million for the period under review.
Total assets of GCB registered a growth from GH¢1,154,719,385 in 2007 to GH¢1,650,220,348 in 2008 while total loans and advances for the period increased to GH¢1,087,118,928 from GH¢750,663,543 – a rise of 45.1 percent.
These facilities were released to support various sectors of the economy including commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, services and construction.
GCB continued its branch expansion and branch refurbishment, opening 12 new branches in strategic locations countrywide to bring its services closer to customers.
The company’s branch network soared to 148 from 136 in 2007. Also, it introduced the CommernetPlus, an electronic banking service and GCB MasterCard in addition to Royal Banking, GCB’s private banking service.
These initiatives culminated in pre-tax profits of GH¢9.71 million as against the 2007 figure of GH¢46.96 million.
By Samuel Boadi