Accra, June 21, GNA - Eximguaranty Company, one of Ghana's strategic credit guarantee institutions, posted a good result last year, as its total income increased by 25 per cent from 5.6 billion cedis in 2005 to seven billion cedis in 2006.

The company's profit before tax increased from 471 million cedis in 2005 to 497 million cedis in 2006, whilst its income surplus increased from 558 million cedis to 795 million cedis. Mr Felix Ntrakwah, Chairman of the Company, said this at the Eighth Annual General Meeting of the company in Accra on Thursday. He said total assets grew by 46 per cent from 31.7 billion cedis to 46.3 billion cedis.

The Chairman said the company's operational income grew from 1.89 billion cedis in 2005 to 3.94 billion cedis in 2006, the highest achieved in its operations.

On outlook for 2007, Mr Ntrakwah said the institution intended to consolidate its position in the economy as an effective financial intermediary institution willing to share credit risks of all banks and other financial institutions in order to grow exports as well as the small and medium enterprise sector of the economy. He said Eximguaranty would upgrade its accounting and operational systems as a well as its management information systems to achieve higher efficiency levels in 2007.

Mr Ntrakwa said staff career development would be accorded high priority to enable the company to achieve optimum work performance. Mrs Felicity Acquah, Managing Director of the Company, said following the recent passage of the Credit Reporting Law, Ghana looked set to embrace a refreshing credit culture. She said the company intended to strengthen its profile as the foremost credit guarantee institution providing high value support for "ambitious" SME's keen on growth.

Mrs Acquah added that Eximguaranty was working to facilitate direct credit syndication with rural and community banks to serve promising customers and ensure broader nationwide access to its services. Eximguaranty, a non-bank financial institution, was set up by to assist banks and other lending institutions leverage resources to support private sector led growth.

The company partners all banks, leasing firms and other finance houses to meet the credit needs of SMEs and private sector operators.