Barclays Bank Ghana has promised to increase lending to businesses after a record financial performance for last year.

The assurance follows the Bank’s record financial performance for last year, which saw its earning hit È»177 million.

The move by the Bank is seen as interesting after some of its competitors indicated that they will cut lending to businesses because of the current economic challenges.

But Finance Director of Barclays, Antoinette Kwofie told Joy Business they will engage in more responsible lending to businesses in the coming months.

“There are always early warning signs and if you pick up on this early enough you can actually support the client to help them turn around their situation and help them settle their credit obligations”, she said.

The Bank instead of cutting lending will rather monitor credit given to customers to ensure that its risk profile is not jeopardised.

Meanwhile, Barclays Bank is attributing its solid financial results to strong growth in revenue and prudent management of its funds. 

Barclays also saw a significant reduction in impairment charge for credit losses, from about $26.3 million to $5.8 million, while loan advances to customers shot up to È»1.1 billion from È»887 million.

Barclays Bank's total assets currently stands at Ȼ2.9 billion.