In the first half of last year, the bank had a profit of Rwf16 billion.
According to the group's financial statement, the largest driver of the performance, as has been the case previously, was the banking subsidiary
Non-interest income stood at Rwf 16.2 billion buoyed by increased trade volume and economic activities.
In the first half of the year, the bank served over 356,900 Retail customers and over 26,000 corporate clients through its branch network of 68 and over 2690 banking agents across the country.
In an aim to increase financial services access, the lender expanded its agency banking network to 2,692 agents who processed over 2.8 million transactions.
The group's cost to income ratio was at 32.8 per cent, among the lowest in the industry.
Cost-to-income ratio is important for determining the profitability of a bank. A low cost to income ratio is a positive development as it indicates that it takes less cost to generate income.
However, the lender's Non-performing Loans was at 6.6 per cent, above industry average of 5.9 per cent.
The higher NPL was explained as resulting from pressure from one commercial real estate loan which is not current with payments.
"We have seen pressure on our NPL that is higher than market average, this is because of some pressure we are seeing in the commercial real estate sector where we have one top client that is not current with payments. We are negotiating with the client to see if there is a way to inject equity for them to reduce the debt service. This is something we are undertaking and hope to have ended by year end," Dr. Diane Karusisi, Chief Executive Officer of
The insurance arm raked in a profit of the Group raked in a profit of Rwf 1.19 billion in the first half of 2021 compared to Rwf1.39 billion registered in the same period last year. Gross premiums increased from Rwf 2.72 billion in the first half of 2020 to Rwf4.05 billion in 2021 reflecting a growth of 49 per cent.
At
Commenting on the performance, Dr. Diane Karusisi, the
"In line with improved business activity,
"The recent mass vaccination campaign in
In 2020,
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