By Amin Kef Sesay
The Bank of Sierra Leone has approved the 2019 financial statements of the Rokel Commercial Bank and the report has revealed a colossal profit of Le79 Billion before tax. Perhaps, the most significant aspect of the report is the revelation that the bank has achieved positive retained earnings of Le966 Million which represents a significant leap from the Le46Billion negative retained earnings in 2018.
In simple terms, it means the bank now has excess and stable profit that has not only put it in a position to pay dividend to its shareholders but can also boast of extremely strong capital adequacy or depositor base. Clearly, with such a positive financial outlook, the Rokel Commercial Bank has taken off to become the financial institution it ought to be.
The report states that the banks’ investment in treasury bonds is in excess of Le800 Billion while its prudential statistics projects a very positive picture – accounting for only 3% of non-performing loans – meaning there is a very limited amount of non- performing loans whilst the number of performing loans has significantly increased. The Capital adequacy ratio increased to 55%, dwarfing a 15% target to guarantee among others, a daily cash liquidity of the bank.
With such an enviable growth trajectory occasioned by a robust and aggressive transformation programme initiated by the current management, the Rokel Commercial Bank is headed for unimaginable success in Sierra Leone’s financial sector. The bank is set to be fully automated with a state of the art IT infrastructure. This will essentially eradicate the time consuming paperwork to bring in efficiency in the day to day operations of the bank. Customer service has incredibly improved as was exemplified during a massive operation to pay over 29,000 beneficiaries of a NACSA safety net programme.
“Every subset of the bank was made to realize they have a role to play and I think that was how the magic started….we wanted to see how we can wake up the potentials within the institution and this was triggered by a new management…..our good knowledge of micro and macro credentials made us give new measurable targets to every division of the bank. We now have a coordinated approach to everything unlike previously when the bank worked in silos” said RCBank’s Managing Director, Dr Dayoh Gilpin.
