Cal Bank Ghana 2019 third quarter profit increased by 18.1 per cent to GH¢135 million, in-coming Managing Director of the bank, Philip Owiredu has said.

The third quarter 2019 profit after tax of Cal Bank rose to GH¢135 million from GH¢115 million in the same period last year.

Speaking at the bank’s turn of the ‘Facts behind the figures series’ organised by the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) at the Cal Bank Head Office in Accra, Mr Owiredu attributed the performance of the bank to growth assets and interest income of the bank.

He explained that the bank’s total assets grew by 43 per cent to GH¢7.2 billion in the third quarter of this year from GH¢5 billion in the same period last year.

Mr Owiredu said the net interest income in the third quarter of this year increased by 31.8 per cent and total deposits of the bank also increased by 39 per cent.

He disclosed that the bank had raised about $108 million through Certificate of Participation (COP) from the international capital market to finance the operations of the company.

The funds from the COP, the in-coming Managing Director said would be used to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country.

Outlining some strategies to further boost the growth of the bank, Mr Owiredu said the bank would   invest massively in digital banking to bring banking services to the doorstep of its customers.

He said the bank had also invested hugely in Agent Banking and currently the bank’s Agent Banking had started and customers of the bank could access banking services in designated pharmacies and Mobile Money points.

“Cal Bank is also focused on women banking and has set up a specialised desk to cater for the financial needs of women,” Mr Owiredu said, adding that the bank had also ventured into green financing in a bid to promote the environment.

The out-going Managing Director of Cal Bank, Frank Adu Junior in his remarks said regulatory, statutory and legal reforms would help drive interest rates down, and said the country’s relative high interest rates could not be blamed on banks.

Mr Adu, who  said this in response to a question on what could be done to drive interest rates down,  said interest rates reflect the performance of the economy and good management of the economy would  help drive interest rate down.

According to him, if the cost of capital was low, banks could also lend to customers at reduced interest rates.

“If the cost of capital is nine per cent and with a margin of seven per cent, banks can lend at 16 per cent, but if the cost of capital is 16 per cent, with a margin of seven per cent banks will lend at 23 per cent,” he said.

Mr Adu Jnr warned that any attempt by the government to cap interest rates would prove dire for the economy, stressing that the country paid dearly when government attempted to control interest rates in the past.

The Acting Managing Director of the GSE, Mr Ekow Afedzie in his address commended the management of Cal Bank Ghana for regularly furnishing investors with information about the operations of the bank through the Fact behind the figures series.

He said the bank was also among the few local companies which had been using the capital market to raise funds to finance their operations.