Zenith Bank attains GHC400m capital

Zenith Bank’s recent realization of the GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement set by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has earned it a place among banking giants in Ghana.

This is because the GH¢400 million capital requirement is a 233 percent increase over the previous GH¢120 million benchmark which has been in place since 2012.

The bank’s first quarter unaudited financial results for this year, which revealed the bank’s capital strength, showed that it has the financial muscle to undertake big ticket transactions and by extension assist government to achieve its economic and transformational plans.

Henry Oroh, Managing Director of Zenith Bank, who commended the bank’s shareholders, board of directors and management for collaborating to make this happen, said Zenith Bank used funds from its income surplus to chalk the success.

“We are proud of this achievement.This follows a year of tremendous financial results that gave us substantial surpluses to boost our capital buffers. We have also, by this act, reinforced our standing in the industry and proven our ability to rise to the Central Bank’s call for a more sophisticated and robust capital framework within the industry.”

Zenith Bank recorded a solid performance in the 2017 financial year.

The bank posted a profit-before-tax of GH?250.5 million in the period, a jump of 23.7% that beat its own record for 2016 of GH?202.6 million.

Its pre-tax profit margin was 58.9%, up from 56.6% in 2016, while Return On Assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), were 6.2% and 26.1% respectively.

The bank’s revenue grew by 18.8% to GH?425.2 million, while cost growth was contained to 17.5%, in line with continuing efforts to enhance cost-efficiency and optimize resources.

The cost-to-income ratio stood at 39.3% against 39.8% in 2016.

The balance sheet developments witnessed total assets increase by 37.2% to GH?4.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) and total equity rise to GH?747 million (US$170 million).

Incorporated in April 2005 under the Banking Act 2004 (Act 673) as a private limited liability company, Zenith Bank commenced universal banking operations in September 2005.

Since then, its brand has been synonymous with its cutting-edge ICT platform, passionately innovative staff and devotion to the development of top of the range products and services to meet customer needs.

Zenith Bank is an epitome of a stable and strong institution with a brand and customer service that are the envy of its peers.