Publicly-listed lender Société Generale Ghana Plc has announced plans to grow its lending to businesses and clients, targeting a credit market share of 7.5 percent by the end of next year.

The ambitious plan, according to its Managing Director, Hakim Ouzanni, will also see the bank grow its market share in other key operational areas, such as deposits, flows and market activities, in a bid to reposition the bank as a major player in the banking industry.

“With the stable political environment, we will continue to grow our share of market activities—forex activities, derivatives, fixed income trading—from our current ranking to a market ranking of sixth position by 2023,” he added.

Société Generale posted a 20 percent profit growth in the 2020 financial year on the back of a strong net cost of risk performance, which improved by almost 40 percent. Profit after tax stood at GH¢154.2 million compared with the previous year’s figure of GH¢128.5 million.

The bank remained resilient despite the pandemic and posted gains on most of its notable indicators, according to its financial results.

Net banking income increased by 7.8 percent, operating expenses went up by 6 percent, total assets grew by over 15 percent, while shareholders’ funds also saw a 15.4 percent growth.

The bank’s treasury activities grew by 26.7 percent, but the pandemic-related liquidity crunch led to a marginal 9.1 percent growth in deposits and a 3.1 percent decline in its loan book.

“The surge of the COVID-19 pandemic during the year led to a visible change in our banking operations and also had an impact on the various projections for growth and performance,” Mr. Ouzanni said in the bank’s annual report.

To improve deposit mobilisation, the bank plans to roll out a market collections strategy that will see the setting up of cash collection hubs to serve traders and businesses in key commercial spaces.

It has also implemented a wide range of IT transformation plans aimed at accelerating its digital strategy towards the establishment of an open, agile and flexible infrastructure that would offer fast and convenient banking to clients.