GCB Bank posts 71% profit as bad loans fall sharply

• GCB Bank posts 71% profit as bad loans fall sharply down.
• The profit is a 71 percent rise in profit before tax of GH¢902.5 million, compared with GH¢533.2 million in 2025.

Ghana’s biggest local bank, GCB Bank PLC, has delivered a strong performance for the first quarter of 2026, posting a 71 percent rise in profit before tax to GH¢902.5 million, compared with GH¢533.2 million in the same period last year’s overall performance. The earnings growth reflected in the bank’s unaudited financial statements for the period ended 31 March 2026 was driven by a sharp rise in lending to customers, reduced loan impairment charges, and continued growth in both interest and non-interest income sources across all major banking business segments overall.

Profit after tax rose to GH¢584.9 million from GH¢341.1 million in Q1 2025, a 71.5 percent increase year on year. Earnings per share increased steadily from 5.15 pesewas to 8.83 pesewas for the bank and from 5.08 to 8.76 pesewas on a group basis, respectively, recording gains. The most notable change was the strong improvement in asset quality overall. The bank’s non-performing loan ratio fell sharply from 14.9 per cent in March 2025 to 4.9 per cent in March 2026. The non-performing loan ratio, excluding the loss category, stood at 2.4 percent.
Net impairment losses on financial assets rose slightly to GH¢91.7 million from GH¢73.1 million, a much smaller increase than the rapid growth in the loan book would suggest as an overall trend.

The bank’s credit impairment allowance dropped significantly, from GH¢1.66 billion in March 2025 to GH¢735.9 million in March 2026, reflecting the cleanup of legacy bad debts written off.
Loans and advances to customers more than doubled year on year, rising from GH¢9.45 billion to GH¢18.21 billion, showing GCB’s renewed aggressive lending after a de-risking phase in the period. That expansion, combined with a 36 percent increase in investment securities to GH¢21.28 billion, pushed interest income to GH¢1.46 billion, up from GH¢1.30 billion in the year period.

Net interest income rose by 20 per cent to GH¢1.13 billion, while net fees and commissions more than doubled, climbing from GH¢143.7 million to GH¢317.1 million, supported by strong growth in processing and facility fees, which increased from GH¢31.9 million to GH¢108.2 million. Net trading income also more than doubled to GH¢336.8 million, driven by strong fixed-income trading and foreign exchange gains performance.

Total operating income grew by 44 per cent to GH¢1.80 billion, easily covering a 34 per cent rise in staff costs to GH¢464.2 million and a 12 per cent increase in other expenses to GH¢286.2 million. The balance sheet expanded strongly overall. Total assets rose by 28 per cent to GH¢60.01 billion for the bank and GH¢60.41 billion for the group, up from GH¢47.07 billion and GH¢47.75 billion in March 2025. Customer deposits increased by 17.4 percent to GH¢44.10 billion, while borrowings nearly doubled to GH¢6.93 billion, bipercenthowing the bank has a strong loan growth expansion strategy in place.

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