While the deadline for the minimum capital requirement required by the Central Bank of Ghana (BoG) is December 31, 2018, Zenith Bank is surprised to become the first bank in the country to formally meet the benchmark index. 400 million Ghanaian cedis, or about 90 million US dollars
The bank’s success follows a performance in 2017 that allowed the bank to record a pre-tax profit of more than 250 million Ghanaian cedis ($ 56.3 million), more than 23% over 2016. The bank has increased its total assets from more than $ 231 million to more than $ 914 million. The audited financial results published by Zenith Bank in 2017 showed that the bank had a revenue surplus of more than $ 103 million in addition to its stated capital, slightly over $ 27.5 million.
In the first quarter of the current year, the bank continues its strong performance with a total of assets of $ 1.146 billion. The bank’s move to consolidate its stated minimum capital by using funds from its surplus income did not significantly reduce the bank’s retained earnings – boasting over $ 49.8 million as at 31 December. March 2018.
This success of Zenith Bank makes it the first bank to have truly met the requirements of the World Central Bank – which demonstrated in its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2018.
As a reminder, it was last September that the central bank decided to increase the minimum capital of banks to, according to her, to create stronger banks capable of boosting the economic growth of the country by carrying out significant transactions.
