Lender KCB has released its HY financials for 2020.
The bank says it made KES 7.6 billion in after-tax profit for the first half of the year.
This is a 40 percent drop from what KCB registered in the same period in 2019.
As expected, the reason for the decline is due to the Coronavirus pandemic that generally increased provisions.
Nevertheless, KCB’s total operating income grew by 17 percent to KES 45.0 billion in the period under review compared to KES 38.6 billion in June 2019.
Net interest also jumped to 22 percent to KES 31.1 billion for KES 25.4 billion following additional investment in government securities and lending.
Regarding non-funded income, the bank posted a 6 percent growth to KES 14.0 billion from KES 13.2 billion recorded in the same period last year.
KCB says the growth was as a result of revenues from a digital proposition, growth in the forex income and additional income from National Bank that KCB acquired sometime back.
The bank is still focusing on digital services. Transactions performed on digital channels were marked by a jump in non-branch services to 98 percent from 95 percent in Q2 2019.
According to the bank, the majority of digital transactions were led by mobile, internet and agency banking.
CEO Joshua Oigara’s Commentary
The second quarter was the toughest in our recent history as the pandemic hurt economic activity across markets. Most of the key sectors were nearly shut down and our customers continue to face unprecedented challenges.
When the virus hit home in March, we made a commitment to look after our customers, staff and other stakeholders while pursuing business continuity. We intend to keep on this promise even under the current worsening operating environment.
We project a continued strain on the business and economy in the remaining part of the year as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. We will accelerate our support to customers, roll out cost management initiatives and seek avenues to boost efficiency through digitization to cushion the business from emerging pressures.
