Fidelity Bank, an indigenous bank has moved ahead of the end of December deadline to meet Bank of Ghana’s new minimum capital requirement of GHȻ400 million for all banks.
This was after an extraordinary meeting by its shareholders where a special resolution was passed to move GHȻ50 million from its income surplus and to add it to the existing stated capital of GHȻ354 million last Friday.
Addressing the media after the meeting in Accra to announce the breakthrough, Mr. Edward Effah, Chairman of Fidelity, the bank’s financial position over the years had been strong.
He said meeting the BoG’s requirement was not a challenge for the bank adding that they would have increased its capital without the BoG directive.
Fidelity Bank ranked the first among the top 10 banks with Capital Adequacy Ratio of 27 per cent at December 31, 2017 and as at December 31, 2018, the bank had a loan-deposit ratio of 27 per cent and a liquid ratio of 215 per cent.
He said the shareholders were bent on building a strong bank hence the passing of the resolution.
Mr Effah said the bank was now set to consolidate its position as a strong local bank and work to be among the top three banks in the country.
“For us, it is business as usual. We would have raised the capital even if the Bank of Ghana had not asked us to increase the capital. As you know when the capital was even GHȻ120 million, we had raised more than GHȻ200 million,” he said.
Mr Effah commended the BoG for its actions to bring sanity to the financial sector.
“I think the central bank has done well in the last two years in making sure that the financial sector is stronger and that banks have adequate capital to do their businesses with right corporate governance, and that people who run banks are fit and proper.”
He said “BoG should be recommended for protecting the ordinary man on the street, salaried workers and pensioners who saved their monies in banks”.
Asked whether the bank would consider acquiring any bank that would not be able to raise the additional capital he said “We are not considering that, we prefer to grow organically.”
By David Adadevoh
