Speaking to the media after the 2021 Annual General Meeting, Mr Sackey said that the growth in total revenue was mainly driven by a 13 per cent increase in Net Interest Income to GHS1.5billion and a 24 per cent rise in Net fees and Commissions to GHS 317.6million.
“This was achieved through increased volumes of earning Assets, which was funded by our rather strong deposit growth of 12% to GHS13.2 billion, which was the industry’s highest for 2021.”
“We closed the year 2021 with the largest loan book, which grew by 14% to GHS5.7billion”, he announced.
He further mentioned that Ecobank continues to maintain its robust risk management posture to ensure that the bank continues to work to maintain and improve its asset quality matrices.
He disclosed that the bank remained very strong, with Total Assets growing by 12 per cent to GHS17.93 billion, with Owners’ Equity rising 10 per cent to GHS2.7billion in 2021.
Mr Dan Sackey noted that the Ecobank as part of its investment in technology, made significant upgrades to two of its critical platforms- Ecobank Online and Omnilite in 2021 to provide a better user experience for its Consumer and Commercial Banking customers.
“We have also upgraded and repositioned our Contact Centre into a multilingual and multicultural customer engagement centre that responds to and serves our customers around the clock 7 days a week”, he mentioned.
He added that the combined effect of the above initiatives has resulted in the number of digital transactions growing by 36 per cent as against a 7 per cent growth in branch transactions in 2021.
Commenting on customer relationships, Mr Sackey said that Ecobank placed the customer at the heart of its business in 2021 by emphasising Customer-Centricity, one of the new six corporate values of the bank – Respect, Accountability, Customer Centricity, Excellence, Integrity, and Teamwork.
“Our staff are being continually sensitized to see everything we do from the point of view of our Customers, recognize them and tailor all our offerings to meet their needs, take responsibility, resolve customer issues at first contact, keep our customers informed and be accessible to them in an efficient manner”, he said.
Acknowledging the measures being implemented by the government to deal with the increasing inflationary pressures and their adverse impact on the macroeconomic environment, Mr Dan Sackey pledged the commitment of the bank to support their customers to navigate this difficult period.
“While we are optimistic of a recovery in the medium-to-long term, in the near term we are committed to working with our clients to support them to navigate this difficult period. We will continue to work to deepen our relationships with our customers and provide them with the needed support to grow their businesses”, he assured.
The Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana said that even though the bank’s performance for the first quarter of 2022 has been encouraging and the growth trend is expected to remain positive, they are mindful of the headwinds due to the current inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions.