UT Bank Ltd. (UTB), a lender in Ghana, expects profit to rise by 70 percent this year after it uses an investment by the International Finance Corp. to boost lending to oil and construction companies.

“We are quite expectant of 2012,” Chief Executive Officer

Prince Kofi Amoabeng said in an interview in Accra, the capital, yesterday. “With additional funds coming in we will do more loans, which should translate into better profits.”

Lenders in Ghana have been seeking ways to raise cash to meet a central bank capitalization requirement of 60 million cedis ($34 million) by the end of the year. On March 30, UT Bank said the World Bank’s lending branch, the IFC, would invest $15 million. Amoabeng said they will get shares worth about 20 percent of the company in return.

“With more funding coming in, we will also support more cocoa buyers, expand on commerce, fishing and housing,” he said. Ghana is the world’s second-biggest cocoa producer and started production of crude oil for export in December 2010, propelling economic growth to 13.6 percent last year. Expansion of 9.4 percent is projected for this year, according to the Finance Ministry.

UT Bank’s net income rose to 13.1 million cedis in 2011 from 9.3 million cedis the previous year, the company said yesterday. Loans and advances rose 51 percent to 475 million cedis, it said. The stock was unchanged at 31 pesewas by 12:30 p.m. in Accra.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ekow Dontoh in Accra at edontoh@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emily Bowers at ebowers1@bloomberg.net