Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March, '98 Share holders of the social security bank today agreed to change the name of the bank to SSB Bank Limited with immediate effect. The change of name is to reflect the present ownership which has now become a wholly owned private bank, Mr. F.E.Y. Attipoe, chairman of the board of directors, explained at the 18th annual meeting of the bank in Accra.

The bank was formerly owned by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

The change in name was widely criticised by speaker after speaker at the meeting because shareholders felt this would lead to huge expenditure to the bank in terms of printing of new letter heads and construction of new bill boards.

However, Mr. P. Kojo Thompson, managing director of the bank, said the change would not adversely affect the expenditure, because the bank had kept low supplies of letter heads. Secondly, the change of name had been considered long ago in view of the image of former ownership of the bank had on international banking institutions it has connections with.

Thirdly, expenditure in terms of billboards and letter heads would be made in any case and therefore it would not affect the general expenditure of the bank.

The bank, which made an after tax profit of 32.7 billion cedis, plans to pay a final dividend of 150 cedis a share to shareholders on April 30, this year.

Shareholders said they were disappointed that the dividend could not be higher although the value of the bank's shares on the Ghana stock exchange has been rising (it is at present 3,000 cedis per share) and the fees of the board of directors had risen. They therefore demanded the payment of an interim dividend by June.