ADB eyes 5th place in industry
The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) is restructuring its operations to enable it to refocus more on agricultural financing and grow the bank among the top five largest financial institutions in the country by the end of 2020.
The Managing Director (MD) of the bank, Dr John Kofi Mensah, said the bank had already expanded its Agriculture Department into an Agricultural Business Division with dedicated agricultural desk officers at selected branches across the country.
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Addressing the media after the bank's annual thanksgiving service last Sunday in Accra, Dr Mensah said the agribusiness division was created to facilitate loans and offer advisory services to customers in the agriculture chain.
As part of its strategic plan, he said, the bank was also in the process of creating a specialised agribusiness balance sheet to enable it assess and design solutions towards the growth of the sector.
"Currently, the bank is not ranked among the five top universal banks operating in the country but with the initiatives adopted, we are optimistic that ADB will be among the top five universal banks by the end of the year," he said.
In his remarks at the thanksgiving service, the MD stated that ADB had for the past two and half years witnessed a turnaround of its fortunes from a loss-making bank in 2015 to a consistent profiting making financial institution.
"I wish to specially commend the board, management, staff and union for their continuous support, commitment and dedication to duty which has made ADB, a much better bank today."
He observed that the ADB brand was currently stronger and well-positioned than it was some years ago.
"Our name is currently a household name on the lips of many Ghanaians, especially the business community as the bank of choice for business, particularly agribusiness,” he added.
Strategic plan
The Board Chairman of the bank, Mr Alex Bernasko, indicated that the bank had formulated a strategic plan to help position itself for growth.
"Some of the key highlights, we intend to achieve with this plan is to ensure we have a health loan administration. We also intend to enhance inter-departmental responsibilities and corporations.
"The bank was established some 55 years ago and it has had a checkered history involving successes, failures, uncertainties and so many situations but adb did not collapse because of God's hands of grace," he said.
In spite of the challenges, he said, the future of the bank looked brighter as it had adopted several policy initiatives and programmes to sustain its current profitability.
As a result, he said, the bank was compliant to Bank of Ghana's (BoG) Corporate Governance Directives which was a helpful guide in offering quality leadership for institutional growth.
"We also work closely with the banking supervision department of the central bank to ensure that we are compliant with their prudenti a l and regulatory deadlines," he said.