SLCB, which is 100 percent owned by the Sierra Leone government, is one of two commercial banks run with state shares. The other is Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB) which 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 which was partly attributed to poor management.
However, the two banks are currently major subjects of investigations in the ongoing Commission of Inquiry (COI) over politically-influenced unpaid loans.
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, the SLCB made one of its highest profits in many years – a pre-tax profit of Le100billion (US$10million) which the management of SLCB attributes 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, informed AYV in an exclusive interview at his Siaka Stevens office on Thursday 1st August, 2019.
