Azania Bank net profit has surged by 15 per cent thanks to a net interest increase in this year’s first quarter.
The bank’s financial showed net profit increased to 6.92bn/- in the three months to March from 6.03bn/- similar period last year.
The lender, in the club of the elite banks with over 1.0tri/-assets, attributed the results to the strong growth in interest income.
Its assets climbed by 7.7 per cent to 1.53tri/- in Q1 from 1.42tri/- in the same quarter last year.
The net interest income, the report showed, has increased by 6.0 per cent to 18.34bn/-from 17.31bn/- in the first quarter, compared to a similar quarter last year.
The net interest income was pushed up by the loans book that lent some 1.05tri/- at end of March against 953.3bn/- last December.
Additionally, non-interest income slightly slowed down to 5.30bn/- from 6.02bn/- by last December despite the increment in commissions and fees to 3.63bn/- from 2.70bn/- in the last quarter, while the foreign exchange also declined to 1.7bn/- from 2.4bn/-.
The non-performing loans (NPLs) still stands above the industrial benchmark at 14.58 per cent though dropped from 18.25 per cent. The central bank benchmark is 5.0 per cent.
The high level of NPLs forced the lender to set aside 171.3m/- to impair losses on loans and advances, though is almost 13 times less than the previous amount in Q1 last year.
Additionally, the bank customer deposits grew by 9.3 per cent to 840bn/- from 768.12bn/-.
Azania’s operation expenses increased by 12 per cent to 16.23bn/- from 15bn/- which is attributed by increased salaries and benefits to 10bn/- from 9.2bn/- and other operational expenses which climbed to 6.12bn/- compared to 5.20bn/- in last quarter, equivalent to 18 per cent
Azania currently has 24 branches, eight service centres, two collection centres and seven standalone bureaus de changes.
The bank also offers services through digital banking platforms such as Visa cards, Azania wakala, internet banking, and mobile app.
