Uganda’s Centenary Bank has released its 2022 results announcing “substantial growth in 2022 especially in profits, deposits, gross loans, and total assets”.
The bank reported an 18% growth in net profit, from UGX211.5 billion in 2021 to UGX249.6 billion in 2022- an increase of UGX38.1 billion. The increase in profits was underpinned by an 11.4% rise in total income⏤ from UGX 864 billion in 2021 to UGX 962 billion in 2022, an increase of UGX98.3 billion.
Most of the total income growth was driven by increased interest income (from increased lending) and fees and commissions (from increased transactions). Customer lending grew by 23.4% from UGX2.25 trillion to UGX2.82 trillion, a growth of UGX 569.4 billion.
Even with the increased lending, the bank said, this did not diminish the quality of the lending.
“The ratio of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) moved to 3.40% in 2022, compared to 5.16% in 2021. This was due to the Government’s decision to fully open the economy in quarter one of 2022 jump-started most of the economic activities which were previously affected by COVID-19 and improvement in closer loan monitoring methods by our credit field staff,” Fabian Kasi, the bank’s Managing Director explains, in a commentary accompanying the release of the results.
The lending was buttressed by a 22.7% growth in customer deposits⏤ from UGX3.18 trillion to UGX3.9 trillion⏤ a growth of UGX7227 billion.
“The increase in deposits was largely due to increased investment in technology like mobile banking and agent banking platforms that conveniently serve customers,” Fabian further says.
He adds: “Financial inclusion is at the heart of what we do at Centenary Bank. We improved the accessibility and usability of our services through enhancing our digital offerings. Uptake of the digital channels improved, we saw agent banking contribute 42.76% of transactions, mobile banking contributed 19.96%, the ATMs contributed 22.00% and the banking hall was down to 13.80%. We continue to encourage customers to use digital channels for convenience”.
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He said the bank in 2022 increased the number of agents by 37.9% from 4,446 in 2021 to 6,132 in 2022; Cente-mobile users by 24.7% from 826,201 in 2021 to 1,030,628 in 2022, and internet banking users by 1.3% from 5,268 in 2021 to 5,338 in 2022.
The number of Cente-On-The-Go and Cente-Xpress customers increased by 131.1% from 106,379 accounts in 2021 to 245,856 accounts in 2022.
The significant growth in deposits and subsequently, lending and investment, according to Fabian, led the bank’s total assets to grow by 20.3% from UGX4.76 trillion to UGX5.72 trillion⏤ a growth of 963.8 billion mainly due to the significant increase in customer deposits.
Fabian, attributed the double-digit growth across all key fundamentals to “dedicated and productive staff who implemented the bank strategy, customers’ patronage, heavy investments in modern technology, innovations, new products and services, good governance practices by our Board members and senior management team, our partners, and all other stakeholders”.
2022 is yet another good year for Fabian who assumed the bank’s leadership in August 2010 and has led it through some of the best times in its 40-year history. During Fabian’s time, customer deposits have grown 6-fold or 619% from UGX630.8 billion in 2010 to UGX3.90 trillion- a CAGR of 16.4%. Lending has grown 7-fold (711.2%) from UGX395.8 billion to UGX2.82 trillion- a CAGR of 17.8%, while income has grown 5-fold (509%), from UGX189.1 billion to UGX962.3 billion- a CAGR of 14.5%. Net profit has grown more than 8-fold (849%), from UGX29.4 billion to UGX249.6 billion- a CAGR of 19.5%. Assets have grown 7-fold (17.7%) from UGX807.2 billion to UGX5.72 trillion.
Fabian said that the bank will, moving forward continue investing in technology, people and infrastructure.
“Over the next five years, we hope all our partners get a sense of the excitement we have for the future. This is truly the story of a bank where God Leads the Way. We are working towards becoming a SMART bank by 2026, with a series of technology-led solutions, that drive efficiency, process automation, convenience, customer centricity, sustainability, learning and growth,” he concluded