Friday 29 August 2014

National Bank’s Half Year Profit Up 32%



By Patrick Omune
National Bank has recorded a half-year profit before tax of Ksh. 1.248 billion, 32 percent up from the Ksh. 944 million posted same period last year.

Speaking while announcing the results, National Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Munir Sheikh Ahmed said the growth was as a result of improved revenues from balance sheet growth, cost management and better management of credit risk.

“We are pleased with these strong first half results, which are as a result of the operational improvements that we have made across the business and the new businesses and products that we have introduced. This is a testimony that our five year transformation agenda is strongly on course. Our focus on efficiency has also brought the cost-income ratio down further. ”

“All business units have contributed to this robust performance, particularly Business Banking and National Amana which continue to show strong growth. We look forward to continuing this performance in the second half of the year,” he added.

The net interest income was up by 15% over the same period last year, driven by the growth in customer loans and advances. Customer deposits also registered significant growth driven by CASA and transactional banking solutions in line with the bank’s strategy.

“Our priority is to strategically position the business to focus on diversified customer revenue streams and optimize and automate personal and business banking processes with specific focus on turnaround time and deepening of client interactions. We aim to maintain our market share momentum through quality service and product innovation,” said Mr. Ahmed.

The five - year transformation program which began in 2013, entails a number of projects that broadly include organizational structure changes, innovation and development of products and customer value propositions, deploying an effective sales model, expansion of the distribution network, centralization and automation of service delivery, enhancing the Bank’s risk management capabilities and diversifying the bank’s portfolios, among other things.

The Bank recently announced strategic partnerships with Kenswitch, the national payments switch provider, and Post Bank Savings and Postal Corporation as it moves to enhance its distribution networks across the country. The Bank also recently launched Micro Finance Business, Bancassurance, Premium Banking Service and Platinum and Credit cards.

The new partnerships now provide all National Bank customers access to 1,200 Kenswitch’s ATMs services across East and Central Africa and also provision of Agent banking services at the 99 Post Bank Savings branches and 470 Postal Corporation outlets countrywide.

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