Exim Bank continues to soar with large asset base spread across Africa
According to the recently published results, Group’s total assets stood TZS 1.6 Trillion ($700.34 million) with growth driven by increase in customer deposits.
by
Kawira Mutisya
April 30, 2018 in
Banking
Exim Bank continued to maintain its positioning as 5th largest Bank in terms of asset base, driven by the increase in customer deposits.
That is according to recently published financial results which showed that the bank assets stood at around TZS 1.6 trillion.
The bank wholly owns subsidiaries in two African countries of Djibouti and Comoros, and these operations recorded superlative performance with best-ever profits.
Exim Bank is now ranked fourth and second in those respective territories.
Performance of the Bank’s Tanzania operations has been stable on the top line; however, the bottom line was impacted due to the higher provisioning of the impaired assets.
Exim Bank, with a step towards its preparedness to the newly introduced norms of accounting effective from January 2018 viz. IFRS9 had made higher provisions to the tune of TZS 29 Billion during the year 2017 as compared to TZS 2 Billion during the previous year (2016).
Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Exim bank Seleman Ponda said, the bank also had written off impaired assets worth TZS 3.35 Billion, in compliance with regulatory guidelines.
Bank’s operating profits stood at TZS 39 Billion. With increased provisions, the bank Profit before tax was adjusted to TZS 9.6 Billion.
“It is important to note that the bank had extraordinary gains to the tune of TZS 46 Billion in the year 2016 due to (one off) sale of its equity stake in one of the local entities in the Country,” he said.
The bank has further planned to write off a major chunk of its impaired assets during the first quarter of 2018 in compliance with the newly introduced guidance from the central bank. This will help reduction in bank’s impaired assets portfolio from 14.63% to 8.95% as at end of March 2018.
The Bank Acting Group CEO reaffirmed the Bank’s endeavor to continue improving the quality of loan portfolio to the target of below 5% by December 2018.
Ponda said the Group recorded a 7% growth in Net interest income to TZS 97 Billion, driven by earning asset book growth, better yields and contained the cost of funds despite increasing non-performing asset book which was subsequently written-off.
Non-funded income; foreign exchange income, as well as fees and commission income, recorded reasonably annual growth of 24% and 12% to TZS 12 Billion and 37 Billion respectively driven by increased volumes of transactions in all of the channels.
“Thanks to guaranteed turnaround time and good service delivery across our networks”, Acting Group CEO said.
Group’s total shareholders’ fund maintained @TZS 231 Billion as at Dec. 2017 while core capital improved to TZS 162 Billion (2016: TZS 156 Billion) which is far more than 10 times required level for the bank without foreign subsidiaries while the capital adequacy ratios as at 31st December 2017, Tier I and Tier II ratios were at 17.34% and 19.32%, well above the minimum regulatory requirement of 12.5% and 14.5% respectively.
Exim Group, one of the largest indigenous banks in the country, has been making sustained investments in technology for the last 3 years.
The Bank has seen these investments starting to pay off. The bank has been able to make a niche in the Corporate and SME sector having introduced its Cash Management Solution during the year. Bank’s
exclusive ‘Cash Deposit Machines’ on/off-site and handy Cheque scanners are considered as the favorites amongst Corporates for their ease of use, accuracy, speed & safety of transactions.
He added, Djibouti and Comoros recorded a robust performance during the year with net profit (before management fees) @TZS 4.8 Billion and TZS 6.5 Billion respectively during the year. The profits were driven by well-diversified sources of income – interest income and non-funded income streams – FX trading and transaction banking and commissions on fund transfers. Return on equity to these two subsidiaries was far above the normal returns @50% and 40% for Djibouti and Comoros respectively.
The Group audited financials indicate that net loans and advances were up by 9% from TZS 838 Billion to TZS 912 Billion during 2017; loan portfolio is fairly diversified across sectors, reflecting the variety of the Tanzanian economy and its buoyant private sector.
The loans and advances were largely financed by customer deposits with focus on low costs sourcing, driven by cash management solutions we provide to our customers range from digital products which include internet banking, cash scanning, cash deposit machines, etc. to door-to-door cash pickups. The customer deposit based recorded a reasonable growth of 7% above a Trillion mark @TZS 1.2 Trillion.
“There was growth posted by the Bank’s Group, in all parameters viz. Core capital, Assets, Deposits, Loan Book and operating income”, stated Mr. Ponda, at the press conference held at Bank’s Head Quarters, Exim Tower Dar es Salaam.
Partnering TANAPA, the bank has been a pioneer in introducing automated collections at its coveted national parks.
The Bank has up in its sleeves several digital-based products lined up for roll out during the year 2018 aiming to improve the customer experience.
Exim Bank continues to soar with large asset base spread across Africa