Stanbic Bank, Uganda’s leading bank, has released its 2017 full year financial results with the bank registering a solid performance driven by the banks strategic contribution to the Ugandan economy.
Announcing the results at a press briefing today Patrick Mweheire the Chief Executive said, “The bank played a key role in supporting Uganda’s continued economic recovery and this was reflected in our overall performance. Our balance sheet grew by over Ushs 800 billion to Ushs 5.4 trillion. This allowed us to support much larger national priority projects including the spread of much needed infrastructure across the country. In 2017 alone, we provided financial instruments worth One trillion Shillings, to contractors, suppliers and executing government agencies. These included Bank Guarantees, Letters of Credit, bid Bonds among others.”
He continued, “As a sign of confidence in the banks resilience, our customer deposits grew by approximately 18% from Ushs 3.06 trillion to Ushs 3.62 trillion representing 20% of all bank deposits in the country. In fact, of the Ushs 168 Billion in net industry credit growth, Stanbic’s growth represented over 80% (Ushs 157 Billion) which meant the bank played a significant role in providing credit to individuals and businesses.”
He noted the banks policy of tracking adjustments to CBR with equal revisions to their Prime Lending Rate as playing a big part in promoting credit growth with the bank reducing its PLR by over 7.5 basis points over the past 18 months, “At just 17.5% Stanbic now has one of the lowest lending rates of all banks active in the Ugandan credit market.” Stanbic Banks overall loan book grew by 8% to Ushs 2.13 trillion up from Ushs 1.98 trillion.
Looking at the bank’s profitability for the year, Patrick noted that the bank managed to achieve much improved efficiencies in both its control environment and management processes helping reduce operating expenses by approximately Ushs 15 Billion year on year. This ensured that despite a reduction in the banks overall income, our net profit for the year actually increased from Ushs 191 Billion to a record Ushs200 Billion. “This outcome confirms our customer centric approach is working. Our Investments in the further integration of digital technology within our product and service offering also contributed to a reduction in our cost to serve while giving our customers greater access and flexibility to bank if, when and whichever way they wanted.”
Analysing the banks key performance indicators Sam Mwogeza the Chief Financial Officer revealed the bank reported improvement across all key financial metrics, “Our credit loss ratio was just 1.3% compared to 1.8% registered in 2016 and continues to be well below the industry average. In addition, we managed to reduce our cost to income ratio by 1.6% to 50.5% while our earning per share climbed to Ushs 3.92 per share from Ushs 3.73 in 2016. Our Shareholders will be pleased to hear that based off the banks strong performance the board has approved a dividend pay-out of 90 Billion shillings, an increase of 50% over 2016.”
Following the bank’s record performance, Stanbic recently received the award for best bank in Uganda at the 2018 Global Finance 25th Annual Awards for the world’s best banks. This prestigious accolade is an incredible achievement that demonstrates the bank’s commitment to service excellence and delivering solutions that meet the client’s needs.
In conclusion Patrick thanked Stanbic customers, staff and shareholders for the incredible commitment, loyalty and feedback they provided in 2017. “As a result of your support, the bank was able to post record results despite a challenging operating and business environment. I remain optimistic that we will see stronger economic recovery in 2018 supported by improving aggregate demand with moderate inflation in a benign low interest rate environment.”