Equity half-year profit hits Ksh. 14.23B

Equity Group Holdings reported a rise in first-half pretax profit on Monday to 14.23 billion shillings from 12.10 billion helped by higher net interest income.

Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi told an investor briefing that net interest income rose 37 percent to 21.2 billion shillings.

Equity, which focuses on the lower-income part of the Kenyan market, also operates in Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

First-half customer deposits rose to 320.8 billion shillings from 301.0 billion, Mwangi said.

The bank said the value of transactions on its mobile phone banking service, launched in July 2015, stood at 97.8 billion shillings at the end of June versus 49.5 billion in July 2015.

It said its total assets rose to 444.4 billion shillings from 400.9 billion a year earlier.