The failure of several small businesses and individuals to promptly pay back loans they took from CAL Bank impacted negatively on its profit for last year. The rather high default rate saw the risk provision shoot up almost three-fold to 12.8 million Ghana cedis and shareholders at the bank’s Annual General Meeting Thursday were not happy about the development. Managing Director, Frank Adu Junior however told Joy Business the bank is moving to recover the debts, but added this could affect the bank’s dealing with the retail sector. He said the impairment amount of over 12 million Ghana Cedis was a significant figure under any circumstance. The MD said the high impairment rate was “not because the bank is making poor loans, it is simply because there is a systemic problem that we have to address.” He said while it was the local banks in the country that were financing small and medium scale enterprises and the retail sector – which is producing a lot of bad debt - they were not enjoying the benefits of rich and easy income from inflows into the oil sector. Mr Adu warned local banks may soon abandon the SMEs. CAL Bank recorded a profit of 9.4 million Ghana cedis representing a marginal increase from the previous year. Shareholders of the bank enjoyed 13 pesewas as dividend. Source: Joy Business/Ghana