Equity Bank posts Sh10.1bn half year profit

Equity Group Holdings has recorded Sh10.1 billion after tax profit in the half year financial results owing it to digitization and increased use of variable cost delivery channels.

According to Equity Bank Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi, mobile banking does ten times the transactions at branch level signifying acceptance and confidence from the customers.

“We see the bank has outperformed the industry which has always registered a 2.6 percent growth in profit, while the industry is at 2.6, the bank has delivered 18 percent and we are very confident that going forward digitization of innovation will continue to move this,” Mr Mwangi said.

Mr Mwangi says the lender has 2.2 million customers with Equitel lines and 82 percent of its loans were disbursed via Equitel mobile channel reflecting the enormous transactions done through handsets.

“The biggest impact has come from the number of loans disbursed during the year which have grown by 308 percent from a million loans to 4 million loans,” he added.

With the increasing cash digitization, the bank is dedicating its branches to funding the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sub-sector and the middle income segment of the economy.

Equity Bank has presence in Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with Uganda recording the highest profit before tax growth of 330 percent. The continued political turmoil in south Sudan saw the business record a 112 percent drop in profitability.

The financial institution saw its assets grow by 11 percent to Sh445 billion.