NCBA’s investors and shareholders will have to wait for their profits as the board agreed to make a final dividend payout at close of this year.
The lender paid out a Ksh.0.75 dividend per share in June this year.
In its financial results for the year ended September 30, NCBA Group posted a 159 percent growth in its profit after tax earning to Ksh.6.5 billion.
This is compared to Ksh.2.5 billion made during the same period last year as their total operating expenses went down.
The growth follows a10 percent increase in the Group’s operating income to Ksh.36.3 billion, driven by higher customer activity with the recovery of the economy as operating expenses fell by 14 percent to Ksh.24.7 billion.
NCBA Group Managing Director, John Gachora said the strong financial results are early outcomes of the Group’s focus on its strategic initiatives anchored on customer experience and of a steadily improving economic environment.
“Looking at our results, you will note that our loan impairment charges, which were a drag on performance last year, have greatly reduced; 98% of the portfolio that we restructured during the COVID-19 period is now performing. We have also realized cost synergies from our merger; resulting in a significant improvement in our cost to income ratio to 43%, down from 46% in the same period last year,” he said.
The group’s customer deposits increased by 11 percent to Ksh.447.6 billion as their total interest income also registered a growth of 9 percent to hit Ksh.34.2 billion. Non-interest income on the other hand slightly reduced by 0.2 percent to Ksh.16.1 billion.
The bank which has opened new branches in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nyeri, Karatina, Embu, Ruiru, Kakamega, Bungoma, and Kericho has also seen its total assets grow by 8 percent to Ksh.562.6 billion.
Nine more branches are planned out in the next month including River Road, Gikomba, Ngong, Kikuyu, Kiambu, Naivasha, Kawangware, Utawala and Kitui.
“In addition to our investments in modernizing our technology architecture to deliver better customer propositions and to structurally improve our operational efficiency and agility, we have embarked on a bold branch expansion strategy. Since the beginning of the year, we have opened nine branches. We plan to open four more branches by the end of this year.”
Provisions for loan defaults also fell by 31 percent from Ksh.13.4 billion to Ksh.9.2 billion as Net Non-Performing Loans and Advances reduced from Ksh.16 billion in the third quarter of 2020 to Ksh.13.7 billion in 2021.
NCBA has added 340 new jobs so far in 2021.
