Equity Bank, which briefs investors on a regular basis about its growth projections has announced 2019’s first quarter financials. The lender, which continues to steer its services and products towards full digitization reported a 6 percent jump in profits before the taxman takes his cut.
The bank, which inked a collaboration deal with carrier Safaricom a few days ago that will see the two corporations pursue extensive financial inclusion, possible agent interoperability (the two institutions transact the lion’s share of mobile money services), as well as technical collaboration on cybersecurity issues, grew the mentioned profits from KES 5.9 billion reported in the first quarter of the preceding financial year to KES 6.2 billion.
During the staging of the financials at the bank’s headquarters in Upper Hill Nairobi, the lender revealed its plan to expand to the elusive Ethiopian market. Equity Bank has a presence in several Eastern Central African nations such as S. Sudan and DRC, but not Ethiopia.
According to CEO Dr. James Mwangi, the financial institution has already requested the Ethiopian government to send a commission that will examine the market before any expansion steps can be taken. What’s more, Equity looks forward to growing its turf to other 7 African states in the next three years.
That aside, Equity says that 50 percent of transaction values are performed outside branches, a narrative that it pushes from time to time amidst its ambition to transition all operations to digital platforms. Also, the bank transacted 93 percent of loans on mobile platforms (Eazzy App, Equitel), although 80 percent of its overall loan value was done in branches.
“As a result of Fintech Innovation and digitization, 97% of our transactions and 50% of the value of our transactions are now being done outside of the branches,” added CEO Mwangi.
