Azania posts 60pc profit in Q4

DAR ES SALAAM: AZANIA Bank’s net profit surged by 60.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, driven by a significant rise in net interest income.

The lender’s financial statement released recently showed net profit increased to 14.4bn/- at the end of quarter from 8.9bn/- recorded in a comparative quarter in 2023.

The surge in net profit is attributed to the increase in net interest income by 13.9 per cent to 38.6bn/- at the end of December last year from 33.9bn/- posted in a similar period of a prior year.

However, the lender’s non-interest income slightly decreased by 19.7 per cent to 8.91bn/- in Q4 down from 11.1bn/- registered in the same quarter in 2023.

The decline is due to the loss in foreign exchange and also the slump in commission and fees and an increase of bank’s other operating income.

The lender’s foreign exchange during the end of quarter significantly went down from 862m/- in 2023 to a loss of 1.59bn/- at the end of Q4 while commissions and fees dropped to 5.41bn/- from 7.75bn/- recorded in 2023.

Equally, other operating income more than double at the end of quarter to 5.08bn/- from 2.49bn/ posted in the same period in 2023.

The bank, with more than 2.46tri/- of total assets at the end of quarter, increased its loan portfolio by 6.1 per cent to 1.82tri/- in three months to December last year from 1.78tri/- posted at the end of Q3 ending in September. Moreover, customer deposits also soared to 1.74tri/- at the end of last December from 1.64tri/- posted in September.

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Non-performing loans (NPLs) according to the statement improved to 5.96 per cent from 7.80 per cent recorded at the end of Q3. Despite the improvement, the lender’s NPLs is still above the Bank of Tanzania (BoT)’s threshold of 5.0 per cent.

Azania’s non-interest expense according to the statement climbed up to 23.3bn/- in Q4 from 21.8bn/- recorded in the same quarter in 2023, equivalent to 6.8 per cent increase.

The increase in non-interest expense is highly pushed up by increased salaries and benefits to 11.8bn/- from 9.27bn/- recorded in a similar period in 2023.

Salaries and benefits climbed up as the lender extended its number of staff to 680 at the end of Q4 from 632. Equally, the bank also managed to expand its operational branches to 28 from 25.