Barclays Bank of Kenya’s Six Month Profits Spikes To 3.76 Billion Shillings

Barclays Bank of Kenya has announced a net profit of 3.76 billion shillings for the period to the month of June 2018, registering a rise by 6.2 percent compared to the same time in 2017.

The lender has attributed the increase in profits to the increase in lending to the national government as well as a drop in costs during the period.

The interest capping law continued to affect some of the lender’s operations especially on lending to households and some businesses.

The earnings from lending to households as well as businesses remained unchanged at 10.54 billion shillings. However, during the period, customer loans grew by 7.9 percent to 176.1 billion shillings.

The lending to the government grew to 70 billion shillings with the bank earning an additional one billion shillings from government securities, totaling the earnings from government bonds to 3.52 billion shillings.

During the period, the operating expenses dropped by six percent to 3.77 billion shillings. At the same time, the costs of staff, as well as rental charges, dropped. This may be attributed to the fact that 130 employees left as the bank embarked on concentrating most of its services on digital platforms.

The bank has announced a dividend of 0.20 shillings per ordinary share, same as what was paid out in 2017.

SME Programs

Barclays Bank of Kenya has kicked off a series of meetings across seven counties in a mission to meet with Small Medium Enterprises under the Barclays Business Club that helps them better their businesses.

The tour kicked off in Meru on 9th today August 14, 2018, they have landed in Nyeri for the same mission. The banks seem to keep on bringing the SMEs on board after thousands of them complained that commercial banks had refused to accommodate them.

Among other things, the bank will help them with advice on how to grow their business, link them with markets and create connections for them.