By Dipo Olowookere
First Bank Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of First Bank Nigeria Limited, has now been recapitalised, following an injection of $72.5 million into the company.
Business Post reports that in some months ago, the Bank of Ghana, the banking sector regulator in the West African country, set a new minimum capital requirement for financial institution doing business in Ghana.
This required the banks to seek for funds or merge together to meet the new capital base before the December 31, 2018 deadline and First Bank Ghana Limited, a member of the FBN Holdings Plc, met the deadline in order to continue to operate in Ghana.
Speaking in a recent interview, Mr Adesola Adeduntan, the chief executive of First Bank Nigeria Limited, which provided the $72.5 million fresh capital for the subsidiary, confirmed that First Bank Ghana Limited was now fully recapitalised.
“I am happy to announce to you that we have fully recapitalised our subsidiary in Ghana. You would recall that in the course of 2017, the Bank of Ghana announced a significant increase in the minimum pay up capital for all banks operating in Ghana.
“I am happy to inform you today that First Bank Nigeria owns 100 percent of FBN Ghana. We have fully recapitalised FBN Ghana and we are now fully compliant with the new minimum capitalisation.”
Speaking further, Mr Adeduntan explained that, “What we done with our subsidiary is that we have basically reposition all of them and they have moved from where I would call them net taker of resources, we have broken even and as we journey in 2019 we expect growth and an increasing contribution to the groups profitability.” First Bank Ghana Limited has about 19 branches and two agencies across Ghana and CEO of the subsidiary, Mr Gbenga Odeyemi, who had earlier confirmed the capital injection, said in a statement that First Bank Ghana Limited remains resolute in its quest to put its customers and stakeholders at the heart of the bank’s business and the clear leader and Ghana’s bank of first choice that delivers value and excellence.
