By Toma Imirhe Ecobank Ghana, having been voted Bank of the Year, Best Bank in Financial Performance, Best Bank in Competitive Pricing and first runner-up in Corporate Banking at the recently held 2012 edition of the Ghana Banking Awards, has also been voted Best Bank in Ghana by the London based emeafinance magazine. Emeafinance is the leading specialist magazine covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa’s financial industries and markets. Ecobank Ghana’s Best Bank in Ghana award was in recognition of the bank’s unmatched quantum leap in financial performance, based on its sharp growth in balance sheet size, revenues and profits in 2012, a year in which it successfully merged with erstwhile The Trust Bank to become Ghana’s biggest bank in terms of total assets, shareholders funds, deposits loan portfolio, total income and profits. Indeed the award citation described the merger as a “transformational deal that made Ecobank the biggest bank in the country, taking its branch network to 78 and its ATM network to more than 160. Instructively Ecobank has been adjudged Bank of the Year at six times out of the 12 times the Ghana Banking Awards have been held.

…outside budgetary approvals By Isaac Aidoo Government has overspent its approved budgetary allocations in the last four years to the tune of over GH¢7.2 billion, The Finder’s analysis of a statement issued by the opposition 

  30 lashes for rape From Gibril Abdul Wahab, Kumbungu Two men, who took turns raping a 16 year old girl have been given 30 lashes by the youth chief