East Africa’s top retail banks bounced back to profitability in six months to June 2021 by doubling their net earnings to over Ksh33 billion ($302.75 million), signalling a resilience of the Covid-19 ravaged economy with prospects of better dividends to shareholders by the end of the financial year.
The lenders, KCB Bank and Equity Bank — which control close to 40 percent of the industry’s total assets estimated at Ksh5.67 trillion ($52.01 billion) as at June 30 — made a combined net profit of Ksh16.5 billion ($151.37 million) from their banking operations, pushing their total net profits to Ksh33.2 billion ($304.58 million) during the six months period to June 30. KCB’s net profit doubled to Ksh15.3 billion ($140.36 million) while that of Equity Bank jumped by a similar margin to Ksh17.9 billion ($164.22 million) underpinned by growth in interest and non-interest income, reduction in loan loss provisions and better performance of regional subsidiaries.
Equity Bank was the highest earner having made a profit of Ksh8.8 billion ($80.73 million), bringing its total net profit to Ksh17.9 billion ($164.22 million) from Ksh9.1 billion ($83.48 million) in the same period last year.It was followed by KCB that made a profit of Ksh7.7 billion ($70.64 million), bringing its total net profit for the period to Ksh15.3 billion($140.36 million) from Ksh7.6 billion ($69.72 million).
Stanbic Holdings Plc, a member of the Standard Bank Group of South Africa, which has operations in South Sudan made a profit of Ksh950 million pushing its net profit by 37 percent to Ksh3.5 billion ($32.11 million) from Ksh2.55 billion ($23.39 million) in the same period last year.On the other hand, Co-operative Bank which also operates a subsidiary in South Sudan generated a paltry Ksh170 million ($1.55 million) in profit during the six months to June 30, bringing its total net profit to Ksh7.36 billion ($67.52 million) from Ksh7.19 billion ($65.96 million), a 2.36 percent growth.
According to the Kenya Bankers Association, the banking industry started the year on a strong footing buffered by strong capital and liquidity position. However, the industry’s lobby group cautioned that the lenders are yet to recovery full from the effects of the pandemic. "We are not out of the woods yet because Covid is still here with us and depending on how it evolves of course the response is usually through the containment measures which constrain economic activities and therefore the demand for credit is also equally affected […]
