Shareholders of GCB Bank on Friday authorized the bank’s board to move GH¢400 million from its income surplus to its stated capital, bringing the total amount to GH¢500 million.

This puts the bank in a comfortable position six months ahead of the December deadline prescribed by the Central Bank.

They also endorsed the payment of GH¢0.10 as dividend per share.

Jude Kofi Arthur, Board Chairman of GCB Bank, said though 2017 was a challenging year for the bank which marked the end of a five-year strategic plan, another four-year plan has been activated to drive its new transformation agenda.

GCB Bank Limited recorded a decline in profit from GH¢467 million in 2016 to GH¢332 million in 2017, a decline of 29 percent.

The bank recorded a modest growth of 16 percent in interest income.

However, there was a significant increase of 119 percent in interest expense due mainly to the legacy accounts inherited from the purchase and assumption of former UT Bank and Capital Bank.

GCB further recorded encouraging growth of 52 percent in net forex trading income from GH¢27 million in 2016 to GH¢41 million in 2017.

“Our non-funds based business also recorded encouraging growth with net fees and commissions of 20 percent leading to a modest growth of 5.0 percent in total revenue from GH¢1,071 million in 2016 to GH¢1,124 million in 2017.

“The decline in our profitability resulted mainly from significant increase in other operating expenses and impairment charges, which together went up by 30 percent. A greater part of these expenditure was related to the assumption of the two banks,” Mr Arthur declared.

GCB’s total assets recorded a growth of 58.4 percent from GH¢6.075 million in 2016 to GH¢9.627 million in 2017 while also there was a significant growth in deposits of 63 percent from GH¢4.260 million in 2016 to GHS6.924 million in 2017.

Its equity recorded a growth of 15 percent from GH¢1,060 million in 2016 to GH¢1,214 million in 2017.

“The consequences of the assumptions and other challenges of the year led to the marginal decline in earnings from GH¢1.20 per share to GH¢0.89 per share and return on assets from 5.2 percent to 3 percent.”

Ransford Adjete Sowah, Managing Director of GCB Bank, in a review, said the bank earmarked GH¢1 billion to strategically support districts where government’s ‘One District, One Factory’ projects would be located.

“So far 270 applications have been received and are at various stages of review by management and the board of GCB Bank.”

Touching on the purchase and assumption agreement of the defunct banks, he said GCB now has a total branch network of 183 in all district capitals and municipalities across Ghana, adding “your bank is now ready to tackle any challenges facing it with utmost determination to achieve its set targets.”