I am pleased to present Centenary Bank’s 2022 financial results. Despite a challenging operating environment, we were able to maintain stellar performance.
During 2022 our operating environment was affected by the Ebola outbreak and the Russia-Ukraine war. The war sparked off inflation in almost all economies including Uganda causing an increase in fuel prices and later food and other commodity prices, exchange rate (UGX) depreciation, weak domestic demand, and increased cost of doing business. This greatly affected our customers’ business growth.
Our stand to address the fore mentioned was offering customers innovative solutions alongside focusing on the real economy, sustainability, long-term resiliency, digital Banking enhancements, competitive pricing, transparency, risk management and the triple bottom line.
We transformed our culture in 2022 emulating the Eagle and its lifestyle. With the acronym E.A.G.L.E P.O.I.S.E standing for Excellent, Accountable, Great in Execution, Leading by Example, Equal Opportunity player, Professional, One Team one goal, Integrity, Superior customer service and Environmental stewardship, our team was at hand to perform excellently contributing fundamentally to our 2022 achievements making sustainable Banking a reality.
Sustainability and ESG
Centenary Bank embraced the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) approach to sustainability combining our Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Performance Management and Environmental Social Performance.
We were able to contribute to 9 of the 17 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals of good health and wellbeing, gender equality, quality education, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work, and economic growth, reduced inequalities, climate action and partnerships for the goals. We were involved in 548 activities with an investment of UGX 1.5 billion.
On Green Financing, we supported more than 2,800 people in the community with solar loans, micro-scale irrigation products, power connection loans and supported farmers using biodiversity conservation farming techniques. We executed these alongside partners.
Financial Inclusion and Digital Advancement
Financial Inclusion is at the heart of what we do at Centenary Bank. We improved the accessibility and usability of our services by 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.
Our number of agents increased by 37.9% from 4,446 in 2021 to 6,132 in 2022, Cente-mobile users increased by 24.7% from 826,201 in 2021 to 1,030,628 in 2022, internet Banking users increased by 1.3% from 5,268 in 2021 to 5,338 in 2022, Cente-on the go and Cente-Xpress number of customers increased by 131.1% from 106,379 accounts in 2021 to 245,856 accounts in 2022.
Our engagement with the unreached and our mission-critical segments continued. These include Microfinance customers, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and Agriculture for example women, youth, and refugees. We recorded 969,198 youth, 994,732 women, 2,126 refugees, overall, 98,729 were under the microfinance segment, and 43,930 under agriculture.
2022 Solutions and Service Refinements
Pearl Bank Celebrates Customers in Festive Campaign Dubbed Pearl SantaNew Solutions
- Smart Life Account: We added yet another account to encourage saving and investing for development and retirement. With this account, customers have access to a great investment and saving deals as well as financial advisory.
- Revolving stock financing: We put up this facility with the aim of supporting suppliers, especially under fast-moving consumer goods to access short-term revolving credit facilities to achieve their intermittent supply needs and distribution targets.
Shared Value With Stakeholders
The Bank shared Value with other stakeholders through payments of taxes, offering employment and supporting the community. In 2022, our bank paid UGX 71.6 Billion to Uganda Revenue Authority for taxes, employed 3,003 employees and supported communities directly with UGX 3.1 Billion.
Financial Performance
Our Bank recorded substantial growth in 2022 especially in Profits, Deposits, Gross loans, and Total Assets amidst challenges in the Economy. This was due to our 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.
The highlights below point out the Bank’s performance for the year 2022.
- The Bank recorded a tremendous increase in profit after tax of UGX 249.6 Billion by December 2022 from UGX 211.5 Billion in 2021 registering an increase of 18.0%.
- Total income grew from UGX 864 Billion in 2021 to UGX 962 Billion in 2022 registering an 11.4% growth majorly due to the increase in loans and advances to customers, as well as investments in money markets.
- Our assets closed at UGX 5,721.5 Billion in 2022 from UGX 4,757.7 Billion in 2021 recording a 20.3% growth of UGX 963.8 Billion mainly due to the significant increase in customer deposits.
- Gross loans closed at UGX 2,815.0 Billion in 2022 from UGX 2,245.6 Billion in 2021 recording a 25.4% growth of UGX 569.4 Billion. This is mainly due to the increase in demand for loans from customers to invest in business capital. Investments closed at UGX 1,774.7 Billion in 2022 from UGX 1,635.9 Billion in 2021 recording 8.5% growth of UGX138.8 Billion.
- Deposits closed at UGX 3,904.0 Billion in 2022 from UGX 3,181.3 Billion in 2021 recording 22.7% growth of UGX 722.7 Billion YTD December 2022. The increase in deposits was largely due to increased investment in technology like mobile banking and Agent banking platforms that conveniently serve customers.
- The Asset quality of loans was also maintained at a relatively good position, 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 that 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.
AWARDS
As a result of our work in 2022, we were recognized by various sectors.
- Best Retail Bank in Uganda 2022 – Global Banking & Finance Awards
- Best Financial Institution supporting SMEs in Africa – Africa SME Champions Forum
- Winner Banking Services by Financial Reporting Awards
- Excellence in Integrated Reporting by the Financial Reporting Awards
- Certificate of recognition for outstanding achievement in Sustainability Reporting by the Financial Reporting Awards
- Certificate of recognition for outstanding achievement in Corporate Governance Reporting by the Financial Reporting Awards
- Digital Brand of the Year 2022 – Digital Impact Awards Africa
- Banking Innovation Excellence (CenteMobile Loan Service) – Digital Impact Awards Africa
- Community/MFI Banking innovation excellence – Digital Impact Awards Africa
- Best use of CSR for the Cancer Run initiative – Uganda Marketing Excellence Awards awarded
- Gold award – Annual Uganda Bankers Gala
- 2nd Runners-up Award – The Corporate League
- Best Retail Bank supporting social and economic transformation in the West Nile – West Nile Awards
- Best Bank with Customer tailored services – People’s Choice Award
- Recognition for supporting young and upcoming talent in performing Music & Arts – The Janzi Music awards
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank all our customers, partners, board, staff, and other stakeholders for enabling the Bank to perform well and making sustainable Banking a reality. The memories of those early days of the pandemic have renewed our sense of genuine appreciation of our customers businesses. When other businesses were in crisis response mode, we were busy planning for the
future. Our investments have continued in technology in addition to investing in our employees 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.
