Loan growth and cost management initiatives are key in KCB Group Q3 Pre-Tax Profit

Strong loan growth in Kenya Business and prudent costs management initiatives helped push up KCB Group pretax profits 18.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2016.

Profit before tax for the nine months ending September 30, 2016 rose to KShs. 22.9Billion from KShs. 19.3Billion in a similar period last year, KCB Group CEO and MD Joshua Oigara said.

The Group recorded a 27% growth in Net Interest Income, driven by asset book growth, better yields and reduction in cost of funds.

“The performance reflects continued resilience across the seven markets that we operate in. The business benefitted largely from a diversified income structure, prudent cost management and deliberate investments in infrastructure and digital channels,” said Mr. Oigara while releasing the results.

The number of users currently on mobile phone stands at 10.2Million, while the number of mobile accounts grew by 98% from 4.3Milion in Quarter 3, 2015 to 8.3Million in a similar period this year. The registered customers on mobile make up over 75% of the total customer base in the Bank. Over KShs.17Billion has been disbursed in loans for the past 18 months. Mobile loans hit an average of 80,000 per day on daily requests in the month of September 2016 offering an efficient and trusted platform for our customers. The success of our mobile platforms has enabled the Bank to process up to 91% of our total loan transactions in the past nine months of the year.

“When you look at the history of the bank and having brought on mobile banking platform. The journey started with mobile banking, mobile is taking a big chunk of that space when it comes to growth beyond even all the other channels. I don’t think it is a coincidence I think it is very natural. Very natural progression and we’ve seen it over the years,” said Eddie Ndichu Head of Digital Financial Services & Mobile Payments at KCB Bank Group.

“The uptake of non-branch channels has contributed 73% of our total Bank transactions in comparison to last year at 62% with mobile contributing the highest from 29% to 35% in line with our digital financial services strategy,” said Oigara.

Mr Oigara said the Group’s asset book is poised to grow steadily as the Bank makes bigger investments in technology systems and digital platforms to support the business while consolidating the international business. “We see the new fin-tech capabilities giving us a strong business position and stable performance in the coming years as the future of banking shifts into digital,” said Mr. Oigara.

Going forward, the Bank will focus more on technology to drive the future business. KCB plans to launch a FinTech business that will complement our business landscape for centralizing our digital platform to provide seamless services to our customers. We take cognizance of the digital monetization revolution, youth dividend, financial inclusion and the entrepreneurship space, nurturing young businesses for growth through the Fintech platform.