ADB To Be Listed On GSE Next Year

Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) plans to be listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) before the middle of next year to raise additional reserve to deepen its operations, Alhaji Ibrahim Adams, Board Chairman of ADB, has revealed. �We are now waiting for the go-ahead from the government to do so. We are not selling the bank, but rather offering part of its shares to Ghanaians. �The bank is in discussion with government and currently awaiting approval to be listed on the GSE to raise capital for further expansion projects,� said Alhaji Adams at the bank�s end of year party held in Accra. �ADB going public next year will also enable the bank to finance capital intensive businesses in all sectors of Ghanaian economy including the oil and gas sector. �The bank is committed to building a strong customer-oriented outfit run by knowledgeable and well-motivated staff that provides profitable financial intermediation and related services for sustained and diversified agricultural and rural development,� he said. Mr. Stephen Kpordzih, the Managing Director of the bank, observed that it had performed creditably during the year and fulfilled its promise of improving its service delivery, the effort being acknowledged through several awards the bank won. �The enhanced performance of ADB has been acknowledged in several awards including Charted Institute of Marketing-Ghana (CIMG) Bank of the Year; Africa Investor Agribusiness Investment Award; and an International Award for Business Excellence, which is a new Millennium Award for Banking Services.� He said the bank opened 11 new branches as part of its expansion project; refurbished old branches; introduced a new range of products and new channels of transaction; and computerised its systems of banking -- adding that these had helped to improve its uptime in credit delivery. Mr. Kpordzih indicated that the bank intends to officially outdoor its VISA platform next year to make the bank�s services easily accessible to its customers, assuring customers of enhanced service delivery in all areas of its operation in the coming year The bank continues to remain the number-one financier in the agricultural sector. This is evidenced in the bank's yearly performances. In 2010, ADB lending to the agricultural sector climbed to GH�174.2million, as against GH�105.3 million in 2009, representing an increase of 64.5%. ADB, set up in 1965 by Act 286, is wholly publicly-owned with government owning 52% of the shareholding while the remaining 48% is held by the Financial Investment Trust on behalf of the Bank of Ghana. The bank provides the full range of banking products and services in retail, commercial, corporate and investment banking.