Sierra Leone’s oldest financial services provider, the state owned Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) is celebrating a two year lead on commercial bank ratings in the ranking by the Central Bank.
The SLCB topped the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL)’s first and second quarterly performance rating for 2018, according to a statement issued by the Bank which was widely published on Wednesday.
This, according to the statement, followed on a trend maintained in the last two years.
SLCB, which is 100 percent owned by the Sierra Leone government, is one of two commercial banks run with state shares.
The other one – Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB) – is partially owned by the state with 51 percent shares.
The two banks had previously performed well in the face of tough competition from 11, mainly Nigerian owned, commercial banks.
The last few years leading to the 2018 general elections proved particularly tough for SLCB and RCB which realized repeated losses.
That was partly attributed to poor management.
The two are currently major subjects of investigations in the ongoing Commission of Inquiry (COI) over political influenced unpaid loans.
Also under investigation is how RCB was bailed out with a $14million unaccounted for tax payers’ money.
The last two years, particularly the period under the current leadership after the change of government, has witnessed great improvement in the performance of the two banks, particularly SLCB.
In 2017, for instance, it made one of its highest profits in many years – a pre-tax profit of Le100billion (US$10million).
The management of SLCB attributes this success to team work.
“We are working as a team and we will work very hard to maintain the standard of the bank and top position in the financial industry,” Bockarie Kalokoh, deputy managing director of SLCB, was quoted saying.
KC/as/APA