Dominica Agricultural Industrial & Development Bank reported a profit on its 2017 Financial Year operations

​The Dominica Agricultural Industrial and Development Bank, (AID Bank), has reported a profit on its operations for the financial year 2017. AID Bank Chairman, Martin Charles announced a net profit on operations at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Goodwill Parish Hall on Wednesday 18th April 2018. He said, “We were able to continue to maintain our relevance, I am therefore pleased to report a net profit on operations of EC 0.48 million as of June 30, 2017”.
 
Charles said despite the challenges faced by Venezuela, the bank was able to mobilize a second draw down of funds from BANDES Bank, in the amount of US $3.97 million. He noted “And together with funds received from the Government of Dominica, under the CBI program, for Agriculture, Tourism and Manufacturing, we were able to increase loan approvals, over the last financial year by 21.5% with a value of 16.8 million”.
 
Despite overall net profit, Charles reported that the bank’s loan disbursements declined over the same period by 20.81%, recording an amount of 13.82 million. In addition, he reported a slight decline in the bank’s loan portfolio by 1.33%, going from 169.2 million in June 2016, to 168.8 million as of June 2017.

Charles also reported that the AID Bank’s Strategic Plan for the period 2017 to 2020 was approved, under the theme ‘Committed to Building a Resilient Dominica’. He added “We are committed to building resilience to the effects of climate change by ensuring that consideration of climate change risks is reflected throughout our operations. The main outcome of our Strategic Plan is to achieve an effective and efficient institution with favourable liquidity and expanding marketing shares”.
 
Meanwhile, the new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Reginald Austrie said the Dominica government is “generally pleased” with the bank’s achievements to date.
 
He also encouraged the Bank to “revisit, and where necessary, reform your mode of operation, so as to bring a greater level of satisfaction to your clients, and to the benefit of the country as a whole”.