Stanbic Posts Shs242bn Profit Despite Covid Impact in 2020
Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL), to which Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited (SBU) is a subsidiary, published its 2020 full-year results, with profit after tax of Shs242 billion.
The company's Chief Executive Andrew Mashanda described 2020 as quite challenging, citing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe.
"Despite the tough period, Stanbic Uganda Holdings has demonstrated resilience and delivered a commendable performance. Customer deposits grow year on year from Shs4.7 trillion to Shs5.4 trillion, which further supported new credit to key sectors in much need of support especially during the peak of the pandemic. Loans and advances increased by 27% year on year from Shs2.8 trillion to Shs3.6 trillion as more clients acquired loans to sustain their businesses," Mashanda said.
Mashanda went on to highlight some of the key initiatives they are already undertaking and those that are to be rolled out soon.
“In 2018, given the emergence of non-traditional competitors in financial services, a strategic decision was taken to diversify revenue streams from the banking business, essentially creating new pools of revenue for the franchise and this led to the creation of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited. The holding company is strategically positioned to build and leverage on the strength of the banking brand and transport this to other opportunities in other ecosystems that are beyond banking. This is the first phase of our strategy of transforming the franchise here in Uganda into the leading digital platform services organization, which is now well on course,” Mr. Mashanda said.
“The anchor subsidiary is Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited. We have now established Stanbic Properties Uganda Limited, a real estate business, Stanbic Business Incubator Limited, FlyHub Uganda Limited, a technology business which is the bedrock of our digital platform services organisation, and SBG Securities Limited, which is a stockbroking and asset management business. The latter is still going through the process of licensing and is expected to commence business soon."
On her part, Anne Juuko, the chief executive of Stanbic Bank said that depsite being a tough year, "Stanbic has shown that it remains a strong and well capitalised bank committed to contributing to economic growth and transformation.”
To complement government measures to offer relief to customers amidst the pandemic, Stanbic Bank consistently lowered the prime lending rate in tandem with the Central Bank Rate (CBR), from 18% to 16%.
This saved customer’s interest payments totalling Shs26 billion.
"Our aim is to ensure our customers can benefit from more affordable lending rates. We also offered credit relief programmes to our customers in response Covid–19 challenges with over Shs800 billion worth of loans were restructured in 2020," said Juuko.
In reference to the Bank’s responsibility to the communities in which it operates, she went on, “We increased our support to the community and invested over Shs3.9 billion through our CSI programmes. We made donations to frontline health works in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, contributed food and supplies to local communities where we operate and continued to provide support in the areas of education, environment and maternal health.”
Looking ahead, as Uganda’s Oil and Gas sector is set to achieve the Final Investment Decision soon, Stanbic will play an instrumental role in the development of the sector.
“The emergence of oil and gas will create vast opportunities for the local economy and our role as a Bank is to provide financial solutions to clients across the entire value chain especially for local companies looking to participate in the sector,” she said.
“Stanbic remains committed to its purpose. Uganda is our home and we drive her growth by contributing to economic growth and transformation. We shall continue to deliver the right solutions for our clients, as we conduct our business in a responsible and sustainable manner to deliver shared prosperity for all our stakeholders."
Links
- 370 views
Join the conversation