Bank of Kigali Group has reported a 39.28 percent growth in net profit to 1.8 billion shillings, driven by an increase in lending and transactions income as well as efficiency gains enabled by the new core banking system.
The bank’s performance in the three months ended March 31 was boosted by a 33.1 percent growth in non-interest income to 1.1 billion shillings; reflecting growth in macroeconomic activities helped by continued recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Net interest income rose by 4.3 percent to 3.8 billion shillings, while the loans book grew by 8.8 percent to 120.1 billion shillings.
“This first-quarter performance gives us great confidence and optimism about the entire year 2022, our teams are committed to continuing to ensure client satisfaction,” said the BK Group chief executive officer Dr. Diane Karusisi.
Client balances and deposits grew 21.7 percent to 115.8 billion shillings in the first quarter, while shareholders’ equity went up 10.8 percent to 33.1 billion shillings.
Total interest expenses increased by 27.2 percent to 1.3 billion shillings in line with the 21.7 percent growth in Customer deposits to 115.8 billion shillings and 43.1 percent growth in deposits from other banks.
Dr. Karusisi noted that the bank’s asset quality continues to improve, with the non-performing loans ratio and cost of risk at 5.2 and 0.7 percent compared to 8.0 and 4.7 percent respectively in the first quarter of 2021.
The percentage of COVID-19 related loans on moratorium reduced to 1.3 percent of the gross loans in the first three months of the year from 1.7 percent in the comparative period last year, indicating wider economic recovery.
The bank’s digitization efforts continued to pay off, as BK Quick’s registered customers grew to 11,841 while the BK IKOFI wallet registered over 1,844 agro-dealer agents and 263,900 registered farmers.
Other group businesses, BK General Insurance, BK TecHouse, and BK Capital all reported positive revenue and customer acquisition trends.
“The Financial sector is expected to remain sound with double-digit growth in 2022. BK’s focus remains on non-funded income, deposit mobilization, and asset quality improvement,” noted Dr. Karusisi.
