Philip Owiredu
CAL Bank Ghana Limited says it has met the minimum capital requirement of GH¢400 million by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) contrary to earlier report that the Central Bank had extended the deadline from December 31, 2018 to March 2019.
BUSINESS GUIDE had earlier reported that Bank of Ghana (BoG) had agreed to extend the deadline for meeting the GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement for CAL Bank Ghana Limited.
But CAL Bank, in response to the publication, said it was only given up to March 2019 to audit its books to be able to transfer an amount of GH¢50 million from its income surplus to stated capital in order to bridge the existing GH¢50 million “gap” it has to meet the GH¢400 million requirement.
Philip Owiredu, Executive Director of CAL Bank, had told journalists at the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) “Facts Behind The Figures” that “during the AGM, stated capital was GH¢100 million, the requirement is GH¢400 so we had a gap of GH¢300 million at that time.”
“Now our income surplus at that time was GH¢275 million,” he said.
“So what we did was seek approval from the shareholders to move GH¢250 million because you can only ask for what you have so that was what we did,” Mr Owiredu added.
“So we have a gap of GH¢50 million which we have to meet,” he said.
“Now you can only move from income surplus to stated capital after an audit has been done, and that is a process and after the audit is done you then need to go back to shareholders and also seek approval from the shareholders to move the extra GH¢50 million,”
BY Melvin Tarlue