Kenya Commercial Bank has registered a net profit of 5.1 billion shillings for the first three months of 2018 according to a statement issued by the bank.
The 14.1 percent increase in net profits for the period between January and March 2018 has been attributed to increases in lending.
At the same period in 2017, the lender registered 4.5 billion shillings. In 2018, the lender says that the strong loan book which has grown by 5.8 percent that in turn led to the growth of interest income by 11 percent to a record 15.6 billion shillings.
According to the statement issued by the bank, during the period, the lender enjoyed lower loan loss provision of 600 million shillings from 958.1 million shillings previously. There was, however, a rise in gross defaults by 36.1 percent to 43.7 billion shillings. At the same time, investment in government treasury bonds was at 94.6 billion shillings, 1.5 percent.
KCB also has its presence in South Sudan but during the period, the market in the war-torn country reduced the forex trading for the lender leading to a flat non-interest income which closed the period at 5.5 billion shillings.
The debt fell by 5 percent to 22.5 billion shillings with deposits from customers growing by 8.6 percent to 496.3 billion shillings. The interest expenses grew to 4.2 billion shillings, a 12.5 percent growth.
The operating expenses, on the other hand, rose by 1.7 percent to 9.4 billion shillings.