Christian Ekaete Olaoye
Energy Commercial Bank (ECB) has commended recent regulatory actions taken by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
The bank says its shareholders and directors highly acknowledge the new corporate governance directives and believe they would minimize the possibility of regulated financial institution failures.
Given the recent cleansing of the country’s banking system by the Central Bank, ECB said it has established an Audit and Risk Board Committee to oversee its successful transition into one of the few strong banks in the country.
Members of the committee, it said, include Samuel Ayininuola, an astute banker and chartered accountant with many years of banking, auditing and risk management experience; David Adom, an accounting and tax expert, as well as audit trainer Baba Kamara, a management and development professional and Ghana’s former Ambassador to Nigeria and Adewale Folowosele, who has over two decades’ experience in banking, accounting and taxation.
Managing Director of ECB, Christiana Olaoye, explained that another important function of the committee is to review the risk and compliance reports of the bank, assessment of any internal investigations by the internal auditor in relation to matters of suspected fraud or irregularity.
“After almost seven years in operation, ECB is, therefore, confident of re-capitalising on time to meet the Bank of Ghana’s minimum capital requirement (MCR) of GH¢400 million by December 31, 2018.
“It has submitted its documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, awaiting approval in order to commence its Initial Public Offer (IPO) and subsequently list on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
Board Chairman, Dr Jimoh Ibrahim, said the bank was opening up to allow Ghanaian investor participation in the future direction of the bank.
He is expected to resign his position as Board Chairman after the IPO.
After the recapitalisation, ECB is expected to embark on rapid expansion and accelerated growth, enhance its responsiveness, deploy technology to expand the frontiers of branchless banking and offer end-to-end digital banking solutions across all facets of the value-delivery process.
Energy Commercial Bank presently has 12 branches in four regions of the country but will expand to other regions after completion of its recapitalisation.
By Samuel Boadi