Trust Bank Gambia Limited (TBL) recorded another encouraging performance in the year 2011, with a profit after tax of D110 million as against the profit of D69 million recorded in the previous year.

This was disclosed Thursday by the chairman of Board of Directors of the Bank, Ken Ofori-Atta, while presenting the bank’s Annual Reports and Financial Statement for the year ended December 2011 during its 14th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel.

He also used the opportunity to welcome on board two new directors in the persons of Muhammed Lamin Gibba, the managing director of SSHFC and Abdoulie Cham, director of Finance and Investment at the same institution.

Bank’s performance

Commenting on the banks performance, Ofori Atta informed the gathering that the figure shows an impressive 57.5% increase accomplished by the management and staff.

He said: “Compared to the year 2010, total assets grew by 19%, investment grew by 40% while deposit grew by 20%. Trust Bank’s market share in total deposit at 28% is 200 bases point higher than reported in the previous year. Due to effective recovery measures and appropriate risk management practices adopted by the management, non-performing loan ratio improved to 9.57% as against 11% from the year before. Though lending reduced by 16% as a result of management’s concern about asset quality it still accounted for 23% of credit extended in the banking industry.”

The TBL board chair also observed that the performance of the bank in 2011 serves as a testament to the robust infrastructure and investment in personnel and technology that have been instituted by the management, which should lead to sustained growth in profits thereby maximising shareholder value into the future.

He stated that the bank strives to be ahead in all spheres in the industry with the ultimate goal of enhancing value for all its stakeholders. “It’s this culture of excellence that has won the bank numerous accolades from various institutions both within and outside The Gambia. We remain the Gambian Chamber of Commerce and Industry ‘Bank of the Year’ and we also won the prestigious award from the Bankers Magazine for ‘Bank of the Year in The Gambia 2011,” he further stated.

The bank’s solemn pledge, he continued, is to diligently maintain this standard into the future as well as to ensure its outstanding contribution toward ensuring institutional and operational excellence and exemplary execution.

Banking industry

In the area of the banking industry, Ofori-Atta observed that the increasingly liberal banking environment in The gambia has resulted in a more competitive environment, having had eight banks enter the market since 2005. He noted that there are a total of 13 banks making the Gambian banking sector relatively overcrowded.

He added: “In the year 2011, the strong growth environment and improved corporate credit profile marginally eased the asset quality concerns especially for those banks that maintained a well-diversified loan book and modest exposures to declining sectors.” He said that as a result of adverse global condition, the banking industry continued to face challenging situations requiring agility, adaptability and resilience in order to survive these testing challenges.

Economic environment

The TBL Board chair also told the gathering that from the macro-economic perspective, 2011 has been a great contrast, stressing that though the pace of recovery was uneven among the group of countries and the sub-region, the impact has been positive. He posited that on the one hand, the rising commodity prices increased export revenue and increased foreign direct investment, which helped to support economic recovery across Africa. On the other hand, he went on, increasingly commodity prices heightened concern over food insecurity and widened current account deficit in African food importing countries like The Gambia.

Share price performance

Ofori-Atta said that following the issue of additional shares on a prorate basic to allocate the additional D140 million shares to existing shareholders, the share price was as a consequence diluted to Ghana cedis 0.40 and the over the counter market price in The Gambia is now D7.

Dividends

He also disclosed that this year, the board is recommending the final dividend of 20 bututs per share on D200 million shares bringing total dividends paid this year to 40 bututs per share. This, according to him, translates to 133 bututs per share on 60 million shares compared to 100 bututs per share in the preceding year. “The board’s decision also took cognizance of the Central Bank requirement to transfer 25% of profits to reserves,” he said.

Outlook

Commenting on the bank’s outlook, Ofori-Atta explained that managing credit growth along with superior asset quality will be the key challenge for the industry and the bank in the coming years. While commending customers for their continued trust and patronage, he also thank the staff for their dedication, loyal service and contribution to the bank’s growth and success. He said he believes that with the continued support of all, the bank will with God’s help would positively impact every citizen in The Gambia and stakeholders in Trust Bank.

TBL’s independent auditors, PKF Accountants and Business Advisers, also presented a report about the procedure taken which is inline with international accounting policies and best practices.