Business News of Monday, 24 June 2013

Source: Joy Online

GCB to soon expand to 3 other West African countries

GCB will in the next few months extend its operations to three other West African countries. This is part of plans by management to grow its markets.

The bank which recently rebranded from Ghana Commercial Bank to GCB says it will leverage on this new brand to conquer other markets.

Speaking with Joy Business after a dinner and awards night to celebrate their 60th Anniversary, Chairman of the bank, Dr Fritz Gockel said they are poised to become one of the top ten banks in Africa in the next few years.

“We want to leverage on the highest profits we declare and ensure that we deepen the intermediation process and reach out to the enterprises in the private sector to create employment.

“Beyond this, we also want to ensure that we move outside Ghana just as other banks have been moving into Ghana. It’s our duty as the first leading Ghanaian bank to move outside and project the image of the country internationally. But for strategic reasons, I wouldn’t mention the specific countries,” he said.

Dr Gockel added the bank is determined to recapture its position as the leader of the provider of financial services.

"From 2009, we had to borrow over 100 million Ghana cedis every now and then to ensure that we meet the capital adequacy ratio and other compliance issues by the regulator. But since then we’ve been able to turn the situation around and now in surplus lending to other banks,” he added.