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Business Correspondent
Steward Bank, Zimbabwe’s largest bank by depositors, on Monday reported a record $5.7 billion profit after-tax for the six months to 31 August 2022, up 314% from the prior period, spurred by the bank’s digitisation drive.
The EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe Limited subsidiary also announced a 223% increase in net operating income from $8 billion to $25.8 billion, in inflation adjusted terms, on the back of improved non-interest income, which largely consisted of digital banking revenue and exchange gains.
Steward Bank Chief Executive Officer Courage Mashavave said non-interest income surged to $10.2 billion, against $7.6 billion in the prior year.
“The improvement in non-interest income was largely driven by an increase in our digital channels adoption rate that saw customers transact more on our digital channels following our ‘Go Digital’ campaign which had a mandate to shift customers from using branch services to using our digital channels,” he said.
At the same time, the leading financial institution’s net interest income grew by 119% to $6 billion from $2.7 billion achieved in the half year to August 2021 with one of the major revenue drivers being the bank’s AgroFuture product, which combines digital and smart technologies with farmer financing.
Mr Mashavave noted that in the period under review, Steward Bank launched several products and services to bring about convenient, personalised and smart services to its customers.
“Chief among them was the Square Mobile Banking Application for Foreign Currency Account holders, which digitised all forms of banking services for local FCA customers catering to the needs of our diverse customer segments, such as civil servants,” he said.
The bank also launched the biller engine in June 2022, which is an addition of multiple billers to its existing billers on its Square Mobile Banking platform.
Mr Mashavave added that the incremental innovation consolidates many billers onto one digital platform enabling customers to have access to a one-stop engine to settle their bill payments for various services across the industry.
“The bank remains adequately capitalized to withstand negative shocks while continuing to deliver innovative digital solutions to the market. Digital Transformation will be at the helm of the bank’s activities in the next half year, with the bank looking to pioneer digital financial innovations that address societal and sustainability problems, such as financial inclusion,” he said.
Steward Bank is planning to roll out more innovations around Banking Services, ATMs, Mobile Banking and Cards to ensure customers are furnished with the best service aligned to emerging trends in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In the same report, Steward Bank Chairman Mr Bernard Chidzero said the financial institution remains committed to its digital strategy, which continues to give the bank a competitive edge in the market by delivering innovative digital solutions to meet the evolving needs of our customers.
“The bank continues on its digital transformation journey, having entered into the second phase of the “Purple Ark” upgrade. The second phase is building on the success of the initial upgrade which will see increased automation and digitalisation of our systems and processes.
“In addition to the work being done under the Purple Ark upgrade, the bank further enhanced its digital offering, resulting in the deployment of the enhanced Square Mobile App and a revamp of the *236# platform offering a better service to customers,” he said.
Steward Bank declared a dividend amounting to ZW$650 million during the first half of the year in recognition of the financial performance of the bank.
Online Reporter