Dr Ernest Addison, BoG Governor
Bank of Ghana (BoG) has agreed to extend the deadline for meeting the GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement for CAL Bank Ghana Limited from December 31, 2018 to March 2019.
The decision, BUSINESS GUIDE gathered, was taken after officials of CAL Bank Ghana met the Central Bank to make a special case for the Central Bank to extend the deadline to help the financial institution to raise an additional GH¢50 million to meet the requirement.
Executive Director and Chief Finance Officer of CAL Bank Ghana Limited, Philip Owiredu, made this known on Wednesday in Accra when the bank took its turn at the 2018 edition of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) ‘Facts Behind The Press’ programme.
He stated that the extension was to enable the bank conduct an audit to enable it move GH¢50 million from its stated capital to its income surplus.
“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,” according to him.
CAL Bank held its AGM in May 2018.
“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,” according to the Executive Director.
‘Here to stay’
Despite the GH¢50 million gap and a reported ‘significant’ fall in CAL Bank’s share price to GH¢1.40, Dzifa Amegashie, Chief Investment Officer at CAL Bank, said the bank would survive the storm and make up to the demand.
“CAL Bank is a stayer. We are here to stay,” she said.
“The fall in the bank’s share price is due to the strengthening of the dollar and the increase in US Securities Interest rate, which many fund managers now find very attractive.
She said there were difficulties in the banking sector, but said CAL Bank’s Non Performing Loan (NPL) has dropped significantly.
By Melvin Tarlue