Equity Banks Registers 7.3 Billion Profit before Tax

Equity Bank has announced its 1st Quarter financial results. The bank has registered an increase of 19 percent in terms of profit before tax to 7.3 billion shillings. Profit after tax went up by 20 percent to 5.1 billion shillings.

In a financial report that was released today, the number of customers for the lender rose from 9.547 million to close the first quarter of 2016 at 10.313 million.

In terms of loans for the bank, 81 percent of all the loans came through mobile platform Equitel while the branches contributed to 19 percent of the loans disbursed during the 1st quarter of 2016. South Sudan contributed to 0.2 percent growth of the total loan book, Uganda contributed 2.5 percent, Rwanda put in 3.1 percent, Democratic Republic of Congo contributed 5.2 percent, and Tanzania on the other hand contributed 5.6 percent while Kenya contributed the highest to close at 83.4 percent.

Read: Equitel Customers Can Now Borrow 15 times of the Amount they Used to Get

The lender closed the first quarter with an asset base of KES 430 billion, this being a growth of 15 percent whilst maintaining portfolio diversification. Cumulatively, according to the financial report, M-Banking services for the lender has risen to 196.6 million transactions as at March 2016, translating to value of 177.3 billion shillings. Over 90% of the Equitel sim card holders have already linked their cards to mobile banking

The agency banking transactions value as at end of this 1st quarter stood at 102.1 billion shillings up from 74.5 billion shillings in the 1st quarter of the year 2015. The agency banking transactions value as at end of 1st quarter 2016 stood at 102.1 billion shillings up from 74.5 billion in the 1st quarter of the year 2015.

Mobile transactions through Equitel rose from 11 million shillings to 45.6 million shillings with this being an impressive 315 percent increase from the 1st quarter of the year 2015 to 2016. This translates to a transaction value of 333.5 billon in Q1 2016 from the Equitel mobile banking platform.

Article by Juma Fred.