KCB Group’s higher interest income helped its profit before tax jump to 53% in the first quarter of 2024.
The bank, which also operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo (CBK), Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Burundi, said pretax profit rose to Ksh.21.16 billion shillings ($160.91 million) from Ksh.13.85 billion in the same period of last year.
Gross loans increased 12.2% to Ksh.1.13 trillion, while loan-loss provisions stood at Ksh.6.3 billion up from Ksh.4.12 billion.
“This was as a result of downgrades in Kenya and the impact of translation of the foreign currency denominated book,” KCB Group said in a statement.
Total revenues increased by 31.6% to Ksh.48.5 billion driven by both funded and non-funded lines.
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East Africa’s Most Profitable Bank
The lender’s Q1 results released Wednesday show it now beats all commercial banks in East Africa as the most profitable.
Its net profits almost doubled to Ksh.16.5 billion from Ksh.9.8 billion.
KCB Group managing director and CEO Paul Russo termed the performance as historic.
According to Russo, the performance was boosted by growth across the bank’s entire network, pushing the balance sheet to Ksh.2 trillion, from Ksh.1.6 trillion.
KCB agreed in March to sell its Kenyan unit, National Bank, to Nigeria’s Access Group.
