ARB Apex Bank Limited has put up an impressive performance by recording satisfactory growth in its total operating income of 17% – from GH¢55.5million in 2018 to GH¢64.96million in the 2019 year under review; although falling interest rates have remained a burden on the Bank’s profitability.

Assets of the Bank recorded significant growth of over 47%, from GH¢394.5million in 2018 to GH¢582.4million in 2019.

This sharp growth was mainly due to growth in deposits and revaluation of the head office building, which value went up by over GH¢23.7million. Deposits also grew by 43% from GH¢341.2million in 2018 to GH¢488.9million in 2019.

There was a corresponding growth of 64% in loans and advances, rising from GH¢37.8million in 2018 to GH¢62.1million in 2019 due to the extension of more credit and liquidity support to RCBs for on-lending to their customers.

Profit before tax also recorded a moderate growth of 10%, from GH¢0.91million in the previous year to GH¢1.0million.

These and more were announced at the virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank, held recently from the head office.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Toni Aubynn, in an address encouraged shareholders of Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) which have not as yet met the new Regulatory Minimum Capital of GH¢1million to work harder to shore-up their capital reserves.

Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Mr. Kojo Mattah, said management is pushing much harder to complete all preparatory work to launch the much-awaited World Bank-funded Agency Banking, which is in three phases. Phase-one is the Data Centre upgrade, for which a contract has already been awarded. The second phase involves procurement ofequipment that has gone through the various stages; and he assured all shareholders converged virtually that the project will culminate in the phase-three, which is the launch before end of 2020.