Stanbic half-year profits up 21.5% to Shs 154.9bn

Company to focus on investing in technology and digital solutions to enhance customer experience

Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SHUL) has demonstrated business resilience, weathering effects of the coronavirus pandemic to post an impressive 21.5% growth in profit after tax to Shs154.9bn for the first six months of this year ending June.30.

The strong performance has largely been driven by Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited, the anchor subsidiary. The growth in Profit After Tax was mainly driven by strong growth in trade revenue accounting for Shs37.5 billion as well as better management of loan impairments, which reduced by Shs11.7 billion as compared to the same period in 2020.

Stanbic Bank’s half year financial results released on August 6 also indicate a surge in deposits from Shs 5.2trillion to Shs 5.7trilion during the same period under review. The bank’s assets grew by 9.8% to Shs 3.8trillion driven by an increase in loans and advances.

However, SUHL remains well capitalised above the minimum regulatory requirement, ensuring that it is in a strong position to continue financing the private sector throughout the year amidst the pandemic.

Besides Stanbic Bank, SUHL other subsidiaries include; Stanbic Properties Limited; Stanbic Business Incubator Limited; FlyHub Uganda Limited, and SBG Securities Uganda Limited whose creation was completed in 2020.

Delicate balance

Andrew Mashanda, the Chief Executive at SUHL said the first six months of 2021 have been quite challenging especially with the second wave of Covid-19.

“Businesses and individuals have felt the impact of the pandemic and as an institution we have done much to support our customers, our staff, and communities through this unprecedented period,” he said.

“Despite the attendant challenges, we waded through, to post what our shareholders will appreciate as resilient performance, with good growth across all key performance indicators.”

Mashanda said the Company’s Return on Equity stood at 23.2% up 1.6% year on year, riding on its largest subsidiary, Stanbic Bank.

Anne Juuko, Chief Executive Stanbic Bank Uganda, meanwhile,  said, “We saw significant growth in our small and medium enterprises segment as we continued to support them through this challenging period.

Overall, through our financing to boost private sector growth, we saw loans and advances grow by 9.8% to UShs3.8 trillion from Shs 3.4 trillion in June 2020.”

“We made deliberate interventions to drive economic recovery in a number of ways including the creation of the Enterprise Economic Restart fund (EERF) that aims to raise and provide up to Shs350 billion ($100 Million) in low-cost financing to sectors and groups impacted by the pandemic. We also launched a new value proposition aimed at revitalizing the operations for SACCO’s and VSLA’s across Uganda.”

Juuko said the bank has so far provided Shs 5.1 billion in financing that has reached over 261,497 members.

She said the bank invested over Shs 2.1 billion into Corporate Social Investment initiatives to support the local communities.

“We made tangible contributions to education through the National Schools Championship programme reaching over 60,000 students; promoted better access to Health Care through the Maternal Health drive; and joined the fight against COVID-19 with a donation of over She 200 million to the Ministry of Health providing oxygen cylinders and PPE for front line workers,” she said.

Juuko said the bank’s focus in the first half of the year was on how to achieve a fine balance between growing shareholder value while supporting customers to remain resilient through the pandemic.

“This performance shows that we were successful in growing shareholder value while supporting our customers to remain resilient; we achieved this through a number of innovative initiatives which we intend to sustain through the second half of the year and beyond,” she added.

Invest in technology

Going forward, Mashanda said SUHL’s priority for the next half is to focus on investing in technology and digital solutions to enhance their service offerings and customer experience.

“We shall also focus on continuously managing our risks across all areas of operations to ensure business continuity and implement the sustainability priorities as a true testament to our purpose-Uganda is our home, and we drive her growth,” he said.

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