Growth in loan book, deposits boosts Stanbic’s profitability

Profit driver. Stanbic’s profits were largely driven by increased customer deposits and loan advances. FILE PHOTO

The increased demand for loans, growth in deposit from new customers and rise in bank assets have boosted Stanbic Bank’s half year growth, according to figures released yesterday.
Presenting the bank’s half year results in Kampala yesterday, Mr Patrick Mweheire, the Stanbic Bank chief executive officer, said the stable macroeconomic environment had largely contributed to a rise the banks’ loan book, advances and customer deposits.
The bank saw its half-year profit after tax grow to Shs134b at the end of June 2019, which is a 40 per cent jump compared to Shs96.1b in the same period last year.

Customer deposits
Customer deposits grew by about 10 per cent to Shs4.1 trillion up from Shs3.75 trillion in June last year.
“We continued to extend the most new credit in the sector – approximately Shs400b in new credit – which grew our loan portfolio by 21.6 per cent to Shs2.7 trillion from Shs2.3 trillion in June 2018,” he said.
Mr Mweheire attributed the growth to improved economic activity, which he said, had allowed an increase in credit growth across all customer segments.
The bank has taken on an aggressive approach to attract customers in the agriculture, manufacturing, construction, SME sectors.
During the period, loans and advances increased by Shs490b, indicating a growth rate of 22 per cent compared to the same period last half. Deposits registered net growth of Shs285b, which was well above the Shs94b from new clients in first half of 2018.
Total assets, Mr Mweheire noted, witnessed double digit growth of 24 per cent, growing by Shs1 trillion to Shs6.1 trillion.
He noted that private sector credit growth remains bullish with increased lending to all sectors, pointing out that the level of non-performing loans have reduced significantly, saying the bank’s NPLs had fallen under 2 per cent, which is far below the industry average of 3.5 per cent.