Government’s GH¢2.5b capital positions CBG to lead SME financing – MD

Mr Daniel Wilson Addo, Managing Director, Consolidated Bank Ghana Ltd (CBG) says the GH¢2.5 billion received recently from the government is making the Bank more resilient to support to economic stability, while aiding more Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to grow.

“In the immediate future, CBG would deepen investment in digitisation, upscale support to SMEs, further prioritise customer service, and operational efficiency,” he said.

“The overriding ambition is to build market leadership in SME financing, while building a resilient institution.”

Mr Addo said this at a media engagement with editors on Tuesday, in Accra.

“To position the Bank for further growth, and to restore balance sheet resilience, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently provided GH¢2.5 billion in capital to the Bank,” he explained.

“It [CBG] is, therefore, ideally positioned to continue its growth trajectory and most importantly to continue to make a positive impact on the economy,” Mr Addo emphasised.

He stated that the Bank had already provided some GH¢1.6 billion in loans to more than 5,600 businesses through innovative programmes, including the ‘CBG SME Adesua Series ’ and optimising loan processing for swift access.

The initiatives in the SME sector earned the Bank various awards, including ‘Euromoney Award for SME Market Leadership in 2022 and 2023.

“In the Corporate and Institutional Banking segment, CBG has participated in loans totalling GH¢2.35 billion, either as lead arranger or transaction advisor, benefiting crucial sectors such as energy, tourism, and agriculture,” Mr Addo said.

CBG he, announced, was working towards providing more assistance to the agricultural sector through partnership between Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL) and Development Bank Ghana (DBG).

That, he explained, was aimed at “moving Ghana’s agriculture forward, and this is CBG, GIRSAL and DBG are committed to.”

“In the next three years, the key thing for us is to build resilience and efficiency – have structures in place to manage risks, recover when there’s turbulence in the operating environment, state-of-the arts equipment and a well-motivated staff,” he said.

Recounting the Bank’s five-year journey, Mr Addo explained that CBG, had survived difficult circumstances to post an impressive performance through building trust, providing positive customer experience, among offering other values.

“We started under difficult circumstances; there was lack of trust because we were taken over banks that were insolvent, but we quickly got to the hard work of putting everything together in correcting those mistakes,” he said.

Total assets had increased from GH¢6.9 billion in 2019 to GH¢13.2 billion as of December 2023, while customer deposits increased from GH¢5.1 billion in 2019 to GH¢10.4 billion in December 2023, the Managing Director stated.

“Despite the challenges of 2023 – Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), high inflation, exchange rate volatility, we still grew deposits by GH¢2.6 billion year-on-year, and that’s an indication of the resilience and structure we put together for the business,” he noted.

On the Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Mr Addo said CBG provided GH¢1 million to support government’s COVID-19 efforts, and built facilities for some educational and health institutions across the country.

It is working towards providing significant support to women-led businesses, pro youth enterprises, environmental sustainability initiatives, among others.

Source: GNA

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