The Kenya Commercial Bank has posted a 12 percent rise in pre-tax profit to Sh.6.2 billion against last year’s Sh.5.6 billion in its first quarter of 2015.
The bank ended up pocketing Sh4.36billion in profit after tax.The bank’s total assets grew by 24 percent from Sh411.4 billion the previous year to Sh510.3 billion while net loans and advances went up from Sh233.8 billion to Sh297 billion, a 27 percent increase.
“We attribute this performance to a sustained push to grow non-funded income, as well as cost management initiatives across Kenya and the International businesses,” KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara said.
The bank’s net interest income increased by 11 percent from last year’s Sh8.3 billion to Sh9.3 billion while fees and commissions went up by 19 percent from Sh2.7 billion to Sh3.2 billion. A combination of services on the bank’s part has cemented it at the helm of success. For instance, its newly launched KCB M-PESA account, which offers soft loans, has seen the company expand its reach of customers.
“This service is especially useful to our young customers who make up the majority of the service’s customers. For instance, 24 percent of them are aged between 26 to 30 years old while 21 percent of them are between the ages of 18 and 25 years,” said Oigara.
The service has seen more than one million accounts opened, a feat that took a year for its M-BENKI account product. Diversification of products and services has also seen the bank reap big profits. For instance, the bank has approximately 10,000 agents countrywide and 185 branches throughout the country.
Such reach has secured the bank increase in customer deposits which rose to 27 percent from Sh66.8 billion to Sh.79.4 billion. It also introduced its Islamic Banking Unit which aims to serve the Islamic
market. KCB is also planning to deepen its investment in the digital payment platform as the country and region continues to adopt cashlite economy. Already, the company has rolled out a revenue collection solution which is aimed at enhancing service delivery to citizens.
“KCB has a strategic agreement with the Kenyan Government to aid the disbursement of over Sh30billion under the social protection programme for the aged, poor and disabled using Inua Jamii biometric card.”