Chronicle Editor
ECOBANK Zimbabwe on Thursday said its after tax profit increased more than three-fold to $11.4 million in the half year to June, from $3.4 million in the comparable period last year, driven by an increase in income and operational efficiencies.
Total operating income increased more than double to $25.5 million from $12.5 million last year, driven by a surge in both funded income and non-interest income. Net interest income increased by 70 percent to $12.9 million while non-interest income rose 43 percent to $10.1 million.
“The growth in net interest earned has been attributed to the increase in non-interest bearing deposits and reduction of fixed term deposits,” chief executive Moses Kurenjekwa said.
Operating expenses increased from $7.4 million to $9.5 million but the cost to income ratio improved from 51 percent to 41 percent reflecting the growth in revenue.
Loan and advances rose 24 percent from $164.2 million from $132.8 million while total deposits decreased by 4.5 percent to $314.6 million. Non-performing loans declined from three percent in the previous year to one percent on tight lending and aggressive loan recovery efforts. The bank recovered $4 million of previously written off loans in the period as a result of aggressive recovery efforts.
Ecobank increased its holding of treasury bills (TBs) by 48.4 percent to $90.7 million from $61.1 million in the comparable period last year.
Total assets increased to $396.9 million from $395.5 million previously. The bank’s core capital increased by 20 percent to $69 million improving its capital adequacy ratio to 39.34 percent from 27.96 percent. — The Source
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