Energy Bank says its expectations before it started operations in the country have generally been met. The bank is marking its 1 year of operations with 3 branches, plans to open the 4th later this month and targets a minimum of 8 by close of this year. It has also grown its assets to 201 million cedis, deposits to 107 million with some significant profitability. Managing Director, Sam Ayininuola explains to JOY BUSINESS, the bank also has no Non-Performing Loans on its books. “We know before we came into the country that the level of non-performing loans in the Ghanaian banking Industry was higher than what is universally acceptable and of course that is due to so many factors. So granting of massive loans to SME’s is not our priority for now. We need to get established ourselves before we do that” he said. We don’t have any level non-performing loans as at now. Part of the lessons we have learnt is to ascertain who our counterparties will be. So we have a process here. We do a very vigorous appraisal of proposals before we decide on the amount to lend and the terms and conditions” he noted. Despite the achievements, he says a major challenge for them is the misconceptions about its name, ENERGY that its operations are limited to the Energy Sector. “We need the media as partners to correct the perception that Energy Bank is a speciliased bank that focuses only on oil and gas and power. We have said that the “Energy” in the name represents the vigor, drive and the vitality with which we deliver our highly qualitative services to our customers. We are a universal bank that plays in all the sectors of the economy” he emphasized.