Companies

Co-op Bank half year profits jump 55pc to Sh11.5 billion

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Co-operative Bank branch along Haile Selassie Avenue, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Co-operative Bank Group half year to June net profits jumped 55.4 percent to Sh11.5 billion on strong growth in customer lending and payment charges.

The jump from Sh7.4 billion in a similar period last year was propped by an 11.8 percent growth in net interest income from Sh18.8 billion to Sh21.1 billion.

The bank’s loan portfolio grew from Sh29 billion to Sh330 billion as the bank slowed down on government lending in favour of the private sector.

Investment in Government securities rose marginally to Sh183.2 billion, compared to Sh182 billion in 2021.

Co-op Bank Group also saw strong growth in non-interest income, which jumped 29 percent to Sh13.3 billion.

The Group CEO Gideon Muriuki said the lender has disbursed billions in small business loans as Co-op works with SMEs to ensure the bank maintains borrowers.

“Over 162,000 customers have taken up the MSME packages that we rolled out in 2018, and 26,943 have been trained on business management skills,” Mr Muriuki said.

“Year to date, we have disbursed Sh12.6 Billion to MSMEs through our Mobile E-Credit solution. MSMEs are a critical part of economic recovery post-covid and contribute up to 16 percent of our total loan book.”

Banks have opened their purse to the private sector recording double-digit growth for the first time in the first quarter of 2022 for close to five years.

Co-op says they have ensured that they maintain loan book quality even as the lender ups loans to the private sector.

The lender has also leveraged development partners for cheap credit for on-lending with external funds from development partners standing at Sh41.4 billion.

The Group’s SME niche lender Kingdom Bank, also recorded impressive growth booking a 48 percent pretax profit of Sh405.9 million in the second quarter of 2022 compared to Sh275 million reported last year.

Other subsidiaries including Co-op Consultancy and Bancassurance Intermediary Ltd posted a gross profit of Sh593.3 million with Co-op Trust Investment Services contributing Sh85.7 million in profits.

The Co-operative Bank of South Sudan run in partnership with the government of South Sudan returned a profit of Sh55.5 million compared to a loss of Sh290.1 million in a similar period a year ago.

The Group’s assets grew to Sh603.9 billion, from Sh573 billion with customer deposits growing to Sh423 billion.