The Bank of Kigali, a Nairobi Securities Exchange and Rwanda Stock Exchange-listed lender has announced a 35 per cent increase in net profit to Sh5.8 billion for the year ended December 2021 driven by a 20.8 per cent rise in total interest income and double-digit growth in all key performance metrics.
It has recorded 41.4 per cent year-on-year growth in non-interest income to Sh4.2 billion, on the back of increased trade volumes and economic activities.
“We recorded another strong performance in 2021, reflecting economic recovery with improved asset quality and profitability,” Bank of Kigali, Chief Executive Officer, Diane Karusisi said.
She added that the group delivered earnings per share of Sh6.44 and a full dividend of Sh3.22 per ordinary share in a show of strong commitment to stakeholders.
Rwanda Financial is expected to remain stable and sound. The inflation rate stood at 1.9 per cent while the Rwanda currency’s depreciation against the dollar stood at -3.8 per cent as at 31 December, 2021.
Karusisi said that the Bank’s focus remains on non- funded income, deposit mobilization and asset quality improvement.
They served 424, 011 retail customers and 36, 700 corporate clients in 2021 that largely helped by an expanded agency banking network of 3,504 agents who processed over Sh5.9 million transactions worth Sh76.2 million.
Its IKOFI Wallet registered over 1,850 agro-dealers and over 263,700 farmers as at the end of the year.
Other key performance metrics that saw a double digit growth were the Total interest expenses that went up by 23.3 per cent year-on-year to Sh4.5 billion in line with growth in Customer deposits to Sh109 billion.
Its net loan book also grew by 16.2 per cent to Sh111 billion year-on-year while asset quality continues to improve with NPLs ratio and cost of risk at 5.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent in 2021 compared to 6.7 per cent and 4.5 per cent in 2020 respectively.
Even as they are not looking to branch into Kenya soon, listed under the Nairobi Securities Exchange, they are encouraging investors in NSE to have growth and exposure to Rwanda through investing in the biggest stock.
The Group Chairman, Marc Holtzman said that they are proud of the investment they have been putting towards their digital transformation journey and they are happy to report that their new core banking system is fully operational and the usage of our digital platforms significantly increased.
The group subsidiaries, BK General Insurance, BK TecHouse and BK Capital all recorded strong revenue and profit growth.