Africa Business Magazine Honours Ecobank

ECOBANK Ghana Limited has been named as one of Africa's Top 200 companies for 2009 by the African Business Magazine.

Ecobank Ghana is one of the only two Ghanaian companies represented in the top 200 performing companies in Africa placing 154th on the list.

According the magazine, 'one of Ecobank Group's pan-African success stories is its Ghana subsidiary, which enters our Top 200 ranking for the first time this year.''

The magazine further stated that 'Ecobank Ghana was not even ranked in our top 200 last year but placed 154th and is valued at $497 million up from $324 million in 2008.

The bank was however, ranked 21st in the West Africa's Top 50 companies in the sub region. The bank's financial statement indicated that this year saw from GH¢22.3 million in 2007 to GH¢33.6 million.

Ecobank Ghana has set its strategic focus on deposit mobilisation which yielded positive results with deposits growing by 56 per cent to GH¢683 million.

The bank's asset mix continued to be healthy, balancing liquidity and profitability. The bank's loan portfolio grew by 31 per cent from GH¢289 million to GH¢402 million.

Many experts say given the financial meltdown, companies in Africa coped much better with the crises than others.

Ecobank Ghana is part of the pan African Banking giant, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), which embarked on one of the biggest public share offer last year to raise GH¢3.5 billion.

The offer coincided with the turmoil in global financial markets as well as the general decline in the Nigerian Stock Market.

ETI's pan African strategy has seen its various national operations gradually move up and now has more than 500 branches over the coming years.

Ecobank Ghana was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange in 2006 and has been the winner of the Ghana Banking Awards organised by Corporate Initiative Ghana six times.