The Chief Executive Officer of BEIGE, Mike Nyinaku has confirmed that The BEIGE Bank (TBB) is on course to meeting the Bank of Ghana’s (BOG) GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement for universal banks by the end of December 2018.
“BEIGE will deliver,” Nyinaku said in a statement, adding, “We have a gap of less than GHc100million of the expected stated capital position required by the Central Bank and we will definitely meet this before the year ends.”
Ten indigenous banks, including The Beige Bank, earlier asked for five years to pay up the GHC400 million, but Beige now says it is, on its own inching fast towards meeting the requirement by the close of the deadline.
The BEIGE CEO noted that the year has been difficult for indigenous banks without a doubt and they know that anxiety amongst customers has led to some of them re-directing their businesses from indigenous banks to other banks.
He said TBB is however happy about the faith its customers have had in them, adding that due to the appeal of their brand, the size and variety of services on the Group’s Platform, “we have received expressions of interests both for equity participation in our business as well as merger propositions.”
Nyinaku, however, noted that while they are favourably considering the investor interest in the company, their aim – at the end of it all – is to preserve the indigenous identity of BEIGE.
“Now that this hurdle is almost out of the way, our focus will be to direct our attention to the sale and distribution of our specialized Pension and Health Insurance Products, which have been designed purposely to serve the retail market,” added.
Board Chairman for TBB, Kofi Otutu Adu-Labi, also said “The BEIGE Bank is well anchored”, adding that following its transition into universal banking, TBB is gradually implementing a three (3) year strategy aimed at restructuring its balance sheet in order for them to remain competitive whilst playing in their niche – the SME Market.
“This strategy is anchored on re-pricing our deposits and driving a lot of demand deposits to significantly reduce and align our cost of funds with the industry. The medium-term effect is that the bank is able to restructure itself in a much shorter time to allow for competitive operations by year three (3),” he added.
Adu-Larbi said TBB is confident that its strong corporate governance systems and investments in safe assets will enable them remain very competitive beyond their achievement of the BOG’s minimum capital requirement.
Board Chair for the entire BEIGE Group, Prof. Stephen Adei said
“While confirming that BEIGE will deliver, we also encourage as many Ghanaians, as are able, to consider investing in some of the indigenous banks, so we build this country together.”
“Let’s invest in our’s” he stated.