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25.05.2015 Business & Finance

GCB To Axe 500 Staff

By Daily Guide
GCB To Axe 500 Staff
25.05.2015 LISTEN

GCB Bank Limited has confirmed that between three and 500 of its workers will be laid off in the coming months.

The exercise, according to officials of the bank, is to make the financial institution competitive.

There were hints of the intended activity at the bank in 2011, but it came under severe criticism from workers that year after reports said the about 1,000 of workers would be sacked.

The bank, as of December 2014, had a workforce of 1,944. In 2013, its workforce was 2,083.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the bank's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday in Accra, Managing Director of the GCB Bank Limited, Simon Dornoo, attributed the restructuring exercise to rising operating cost.

'The bank has changed over the years, we have invested a lot in technology and these basically have been driven by the fact that there is competitive pressure, regulatory pressure, rising operating cost and to sustain our competitive position we have to restructure the bank and if that means we have to reorganize our labour force, and if that is what is needed to sustain or keep the bank competitive we will have to do that. Whatever we have to do about the restructuring, we will follow due process.'

Mr Dornoo said the medium term prospect of the bank looks good, saying 'we are currently performing but there are risks on the horizon that affects the sustained performance of the bank.'

Meanwhile, GCB Bank, according to its 2014 financials, recorded strong financial performance, consolidating its position as one of the top performing banks in the country.

The bank's profit before tax shot up to GH¢382,436 in 2014 from GH¢311,233 million recorded in 2013.

Its profit after tax was GH¢270,057 million for 2014 from the GH¢223,508 million recorded in 2013.

Deposits of customers increased from the GH¢2,630,283 billion recorded in 2013 to GH¢3,078,071 billion recorded in 2014.

The bank's total income increased by about 29 percent to GH¢731million, which was driven by volume growth across all business lines namely consumer and corporate banking and treasury while total assets have increased by 24.8 percent to GH¢4,232,819 billion driven by growth in loans and advances and investment.

- citifmonline

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