By Shitemi Khamadi
Equity Group has posted a 64 percent growth in profit after tax, indicating its resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our strategy; purpose-first, inclusivity, affordability, reach, agility and quality have proven resilient and sustainable,” said Dr. James Mwangi, the Equity Group CEO while releasing the first quarter of 2021 financial results.
While releasing the results, Dr. Mwangi noted that interest income grew by more than a third while non-funded income grew by a third to contribute 42 percent of total income.
Regional subsidiaries registered resilience and robust growth to contribute 40 percent of total deposits and total assets and 23 percent of profit before tax with Rwanda and Uganda delivering above cost of capital returns.
The Group registered a balance sheet expansion of 54 percent to reach sh1.07 trillion driven by a 58 percent growth in customer deposits underpinned by sh140 billion shareholders’ funds.
A liquid balance sheet with sh500 billion of cash, cash equivalents and government securities reflect the agility to redeploy funding seamlessly as the economies recover from the adverse impact of the Covid-19 multi-crisis.
“The business has seized the moment and fast-tracked transformation by investing and deploying fintech capabilities of biodata, artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics and algorithms to support customer personalized product and services, offering wide lifestyle capabilities and global reach and presence” added Dr. Mwangi.
The Group has reviewed its 2021 performance outlook upward to a return on equity of between 25 percent to 30 percent and return on assets of between 3.6 percent to 4.3 percent in an environment predicted by the World Bank and IMF to recover quickly.
Operationally, the Group focused on generating and growing non-funded income, treasury efficiency, geographical expansion and business diversification, business transformation through innovation and digitization, balance sheet optimization and agility, asset quality and risk mitigation while pursuing efficiencies and brand development through social impact investment underscoring the performance of the Group.
