THE AGRICULTURAL Development Bank (ADB) posted a profit-before-tax of GH¢51.1 million at the end of December 2011, marking a significant increase in its restated 2010 position of GH¢12.8 million.

This was as a result of a considerable expansion in the balance sheet of the bank, which witnessed a significant rise in assets from GH¢968.2 million at the end of December 2010 to GH¢1,213.7 million at the end of December 2011 – a growth of 25.4 percent.

The bank’s major earning assets included loans and advances that shot up from GH¢577.0 million to GH¢678.6 million, registering a growth rate of 17.6 percent.

Also, the bank made impressive strides in resource mobilization during the 2011 financial year, and that provided a major boost to the expansion of its assets base.

“Customer deposits grew significantly from GH¢536.1 million to GH¢827.7 million, registering a growth of 54.4 percent during the period. This resulted from the pragmatic strategic initiatives the bank has been implementing since 2010, thus responding to customer needs and providing attractive, quality and efficient customer service,” Steve Kpordzih, Managing Director of ADB revealed.

He continued that as evidence of its strength during the year under review, ADB transferred a further GH¢25.0 million from its income surplus account to its stated capital account, increasing its capital from GH¢50.0 million to GH¢75.0 million. Mr Kpordzih said this enabled ADB to fully comply with the regulatory minimum capital requirement of GH¢60 million ahead of the December 2012 deadline given by the Bank of Ghana for full compliance by indigenous banks.

“In the area of agricultural financing, ADB made several significant financing arrangements for the sector in the year 2011. The agricultural sector had total new lending amounting to GH¢141.7 million compared to GH¢100.1 million in 2010. The bank also made considerable new interventions in the productive agro-processing sub-sector and invested a total of GH¢84.5 million.

“Another significant development during the year under review was the completion of the upgrading of the branch and head office operations onto flexcube universal banking system (UBS) – version 11.2 banking software to support our corporate, retail, credit and treasury operations. The new IT infrastructure, systems and processes of ADB have enhanced the quality and efficiency of our customer service delivery. ADB has also added visa card processing to its cocktail of e-banking services.” he noted.

According to the MD, the release of the 2011 financial results of ADB was against the backdrop of the decision by its management to restate the 2010 accounts of the bank to make provision for transactions and balances which have been outstanding in the bank’s records for several years, some as far back as 2002.

“The financial out-turn achieved in 2011 will positively influence the strategic agenda of ADB to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange in 2012.”