Edward Effah
Fidelity Bank Ghana recorded an end-of-year profit before tax of GH¢242 million as compared to GH¢135 million recorded in 2017 which represents another significant growth.
This was after the bank successfully increased its stated capital from GH¢264 million to GH¢404 million.
Edward Effah, Chairman of Fidelity Bank, who disclosed this at an annual general meeting in Accra, stated: “We continued with our stated vision of creating value for all our stakeholders by recording a notable performance in 2018 in relation to 2017 on a number of key performance indicators. The bank recorded a 30% growth in total assets moving from GH¢5.4 billion in 2017 to a little over GH¢7.0 billion. Operating income increased to GH¢690 million from GH¢523 million in 2017; representing a 32% growth.”
He also said the bank recorded a 79% increase in profit before tax of GH¢242 million in 2018 compared to GH¢135 million for 2017 due to lower provisioning, lower funding costs, improved interest margins, among others.
“Our deposit base also increased by 13% to GH¢4.5 billion buoyed by our innovative deposit mobilization campaigns such as the Switch & Smile, as well as transaction floats.”
Julian Opuni, MD of Fidelity Bank, said the bank closed the year with a balance sheet size of GH¢7.02 billion, up by 30% from the 2017 asset position of GH¢ 5.38 billion.
The growth in the balance sheet comprises a 38% increase in the loan book to GH¢1.42 billion, a 37% increase in investment securities to GH¢ 3.47 billion and a 14% increase in cash and cash equivalents to GH¢ 1.76 billion.
The growth was largely funded by a GH¢500 million increase in deposits from banks and other financial institutions, representing a 13% growth, a 53% increase in stated capital.
Total deposits and borrowings reached GH¢4.46 billion and GH¢1.73 billion respectively at the end of 2018, which represents 90% of the bank’s total liabilities.
The board has proposed a dividend of GH¢1.28 per share for 2018 representing a dividend growth of 83% from the 2017 dividend payment of GH¢0.70 per share.
A business desk report