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Deposits jumped to Sh320 billion from last year’s Sh301 billion which the company attributed to the rise in customer numbers who are nearly hitting the 11 million mark/FILE

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Equity Bank Group posts Sh10.1bn profit in 2016 H1

Deposits jumped to Sh320 billion from last year’s Sh301 billion which the company attributed to the rise in customer numbers who are nearly hitting the 11 million mark/FILE

Deposits jumped to Sh320 billion from last year’s Sh301 billion which the company attributed to the rise in customer numbers who are nearly hitting the 11 million mark/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22 – Equity Bank Group has posted Sh10.1 billion in profit after tax marking an 18 percent growth for the half year ended June 2016.

Deposits jumped to Sh320 billion from last year’s Sh301 billion which the company attributed to the rise in customer numbers who are nearly hitting the 11 million mark.

The bank’s loan portfolio was Sh269.032 billion during the period under review marking a slight drop from last year’s Sh269.893 billion.

A total of Sh20.8 billion was disbursed through the group’s mobile channel Equitel which has so far been taken up by 2.2 million customers.

“Over the one year period, our number of loans grew by 308 percent from 1,061 million loans to 4,327 million loans by end of June 2016,” says the bank.

Its operating expenses similarly rose by 26 percent year on year and were attributed to growth in loan loss provisions.

The group’s total assets grew by 11 percent to close the half year at Sh444.4 billion which was against 2015’s Sh428.06 billion.

A cashless economy continues to be adopted if the bank’s data is anything to go by. According to the bank, continuous growth in Agency Banking is seen by the 26 percent growth in the number of agents year on year to 26,593 agents.

Group CEO James Mwangi attributed the overall bank’s performance to soundness of the bank, quality of its offering and the convenience of its delivery channels.

Going forward, the bank plans to roll out its innovative services across its regional subsidiaries. It also plans to continue growing its SME banking approach.

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“We are also planning to increase our impact in the society as we seek to usher 1,500 Wings to Fly students to Universities. Already, 80 percent of the Wings to Fly students are qualifying for university.”

Addressing the ongoing Banking (Amendment) Bill 2015 debate, Mwangi said that while the Bill’s objectives are noble, implementing the Bill would ultimately hurt the public as liquidity would be tampered with.

“It also means that Central Bank would be unable to do the work it is mandated to do. How then would we even manage the economy if the body set out to regulate the economy cannot do so?” Mwangi asks.

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