The Managing Director of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Edward Ato Sarpong, has revealed the dire state of the bank when he took over in February 2025, disclosing it was technically insolvent with a crushing cost-to-income ratio of 98%.
In a detailed and frank account at the 2026 Jospong Leadership Conference, Ato Sarpong said his 11-month tenure has been defined by a relentless turnaround effort, working 13 to 14 hours daily to salvage the institution.
“I inherited a bank with a cost to income ratio of 98%,” Ato Sarpong told the audience.
“It means that for every 10 cedis the bank made, they spent nine cedis, eighty pesewas, feeding themselves.”
He described a bank in deep trouble noting that he “met a bank with the largest capital adequacy ratio… The bank was basically insolvent, to put it in layman’s language. NPLs were in excess of 70%. Loans that they cannot collect. And everything was in the opposite direction.”
Ato Sarpong, a business executive and chartered accountant, with no prior banking experience, said he was initially reluctant to accept the role.
“I said I cannot run a bank because I’ve never been in banking before,” he recounted. However, after a pivotal consultation, he changed his mind and focused solely on leading, not banking operations.
He presented a striking list of claimed achievements since his arrival:
- Cost-to-income ratio reduced from 98% to 57%.
- GHS 18 million in costs eliminated through personal contract reviews and renegotiations.
- Capital adequacy ratio moved from negative 3.17% to a positive 17.5%.
- The bank moved from a loss of GH¢225 million in 2024 to a profit of GH¢325 million in 2025.
“On my desk, I have eliminated 18 million Ghana cedis in cost. 18 million in 11 months. Not 1.8 million. How much? 18 million,” he emphasized.
Ato Sarpong attributed the rapid change to hands-on leadership and a cultural overhaul.
He described intervening directly in vendor negotiations, challenging expenses, and working on the mindset of his executive team.
“Yesterday I had a meeting. We started a meeting at what time? 7:30 am. We ended at what time? 3:00 pm. You know what I was doing? I was working on their minds. That was what I was doing yesterday,” he said.
He also addressed the bank’s status under the Bank of Ghana’s Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework, which places restrictions on insolvent banks. Instead of using it as an excuse for inaction, Ato Sarpong said he worked around it.
“I stood before my staff and I told them that I have two options. One option is to fold my arms… After all, we are under PCA… Option two is to say that no… I want to be profitable. So I am going to make the decisions that will make us profitable. And then I will deal with the people on the other side.”
He claimed the strategy was so effective that regulators later questioned why ADB was still under PCA.
“You should write to us that you are okay,” he said they told him.
Ato Sarpong linked the bank’s recovery to his core leadership message: that true leadership is about responsibility, purpose, and delivering tangible results, not holding a title.
“Leadership is not in the roles. It is in the results,” he stated. “We have managed to move the cost to income ratio from 98% to 57%. 11 months. 11 months… It’s been 11 months of work. Work, work, work, work.”
