AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF ROKEL COMMERCIAL BANK (SL) LTD, 2005–2025: A TWENTY-YEAR REVIEW OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE, NON-FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE, KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND COMPETITIVE POSITION IN SIERRA LEONE’S BANKING SECTOR

نویسندگان

  • Joseph Momoh Conteh Peking University, Beijing, P. R. of China
  • Musa Abdullah Kargbo Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone
  • Dante Allie Bendu Dr., Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejefr.v10i5.2302

کلمات کلیدی:

bank performance, state-owned banks, balanced scorecard, key performance indicators, Sierra Leone, financial inclusion, digital banking, competitive strategy

چکیده

This article assesses the performance of Rokel Commercial Bank (SL) Ltd (RCBank), Sierra Leone’s largest majority state-owned commercial bank, over the twenty years from 2005 to 2025. It asks how the bank’s financial and non-financial performance evolved, which indicators best explain its long-run trajectory, and how it stands against Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, UBA Sierra Leone, and the sector as a whole. The study adopts a longitudinal single-case design grounded in secondary data: audited financial statements as reported publicly, Bank of Sierra Leone soundness indicators, and peer bank disclosures. Ratio and trend analysis is combined with a balanced scorecard, benchmark comparison, Porter’s five forces, SWOT and PESTLE assessments, interpreted through an integrated framework that draws on financial intermediation theory, the resource-based and dynamic capability views, agency and institutional theory, and stakeholder theory. Three findings stand out. First, RCBank moved from a sanctioned and undercapitalised position around 2015, with a non-performing loan ratio of 11.74 per cent still recorded in 2022, to a strongly capitalised institution by 2024, when share capital tripled, and profit after tax exceeded NLe140 million for a second consecutive year. Second, that recovery has been balance-sheet led rather than efficiency led: profit, loan and deposit growth are strong, but returns on assets and equity, cost efficiency and credit intermediation lag the best-performing peers, and the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio remains close to the sector’s low level. Third, the competitive advantages the bank possesses (heritage, national reach, state backing and capital) are positional resources that peers are now matching through digital scale and cost discipline. The article contributes a longitudinal, theory-driven evaluation of a state-owned bank in a post-conflict low-income economy, a setting almost absent from the bank performance literature, and sets out implications for the bank’s board, the Bank of Sierra Leone, the Government as majority shareholder, and future researchers.

 

JEL: A10, A11 E2, E4, E5

بیوگرافی نویسندگان

  • Joseph Momoh Conteh، Peking University, Beijing, P. R. of China

    Joseph Momoh Conteh has spent sixteen years at the Justice Sector Coordination Office in Freetown (https://jsco.gov.sl), where he serves as ICT/Administrative Director with responsibility spanning technology infrastructure and institutional administration. Alongside this professional career, he is pursuing a PhD in Theoretical Economics at Peking University's Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) in Beijing (https://www.isscad.pku.edu.cn/). His scholarship sits at the intersection of national development planning and its constituent parts: foreign aid, international cooperation, trade, ICT for development, public administration, policy design, and development finance. The ambition of his doctoral research is twofold: to contribute to economic theory itself and to translate that theory into policy guidance that Global South governments can act on. His work can be followed at https://ufl.academia.edu/JosephConteh, https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1690-508X and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph-Conteh-6?ev=hdr_xprf.

  • Musa Abdullah Kargbo، Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone

    Musa Abdullah Kargbo, BSc, MFA, FCCA, FCA(SL), heads the finance function at Sierra Leone's Ministry of Information and Civic Education, where budgeting, financial reporting, treasury management and compliance fall under his charge. A Chartered Accountant with over fifteen years across banking and the public service, he holds fellowships of both ACCA and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sierra Leone. He is currently completing an MPhil in Accounting, examining foreign direct investment in Sierra Leone, and publishes on public finance, governance and development.

  • Dante Allie Bendu، Dr., Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone

    Dr. Dante Allie Bendu occupies a position in Sierra Leone's professional life that no one else can claim. Widely regarded as the father of accounting in the country, he became its first chartered and certified accountant to hold a doctorate. His qualifications run from a BSc Honours in Accounting and Finance through membership of ACCA and CIMA, the FeICM fellowship, an MSc, and an MA in Marketing and Management, to a PhD in Accounting and Strategic Management. He has taught since 1986 and now serves as a senior lecturer at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, where his teaching spans undergraduate to doctoral level and his thesis supervision has shaped a generation of researchers. Two years on secondment to KPMG, from 1988 to 1990, grounded his academic work in professional practice at its most exacting. Beyond the lecture hall, he directs Sierra Leone's corporate governance agenda under the African Peer Review Mechanism, has authored textbooks and peer-reviewed articles, and leads the Sarante Experts Group Consultancy.

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دانلودها

چاپ شده

2026-08-29

شماره

دوره 10 شماره 5 (2026)

نوع مقاله

Articles