The Bank, he said, had thus sponsored some personnel to Trinidad and Tobago, which had a lot of experiences in the petroleum sector and local content financing, to be able to address Ghana’s needs in those areas.

Some seasoned expertise from the Caribbean country had also been brought to the country, he said. Speaking to journalists at a soiree, in Accra, Mr Le Hunte said the Bank would, however, continue to focus on providing financing to the housing industry across the 42 branches in the country, while it ventured into other profitable areas.

Mr Le Hunte said the Bank was poised to make good profit this year as its first quarter performance was set to reveal. The macroeconomic policies being implemented by the Government, he said, also gave hope for a prosperous business.

He explained that last year, the Bank recorded some losses due to a high level of non-performing loans (about 21 per cent to 22 per cent); but it was retooling and restructuring to build a bank that would last. Mr Le Hunte noted that achieving financial results was very important; however, it was much more important to build a bank that served the needs of its local communities and made its staff and customers happy.

With that vision, the HFC was on course to become a formidable Pan Afro-Caribbean bank, he said. He said, over the past two years, the Bank made provision of more than GHC150 million as loans to its clients. In addition, Mr Le Hunte said, the Bank had spent huge sums of money in building the capacity of its staff and improving their work environment to enhance its service delivery.

On its Corporate Social Responsibility, he said, the Bank would continue to sponsor school athletics, while it supported its staff in their volunteerism activities in embarking on ‘Branch-focused projects’ towards building successful communities. “We have committed to investing a percentage of our profits in community activities to make sure our communities are better than how we met them, and also we want our CSR to meet the needs of the people who really needed them,” he said.

“Indeed, even when we made profit last year we still invested in CSR activities.”

He commended the media for the invaluable role it had played in nurturing and sustaining the country’s democracy as well as supporting the activities of the Bank. On May 13, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission signed off the results of a Mandatory Tender Offer (MTO), which formally made HFC Bank become a part of the Republic Bank family.

According to official information provided by the Bank’s website, Republic Bank is the leading Bank in Caribbean region, headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago with a 178-year old history. HFC Bank (Gh.) is, therefore, a subsidiary of Republic Bank Limited of Trinidad & Tobago. HFC Bank (Ghana) offers a one-stop financial services that include Corporate, Commercial and Retail Banking; Investment Banking; Mortgage Banking and Micro Finance.