Bank M said it is on the right track of realising its profit target of 25bn/- from its operations this year, after good performance during the first half, reflecting a bright future for the institution.
The bank registered a pretax profit rise of more than 25 per cent to 11.51bn/-in first half of the year compared to the same half last year, which is over half of the total profit realised in 2014.
Bank M’s deputy Chief Executive Officer Ms Jacqueline Woiso said the bank is on the right direction to reach its target of this year’s profit if challenges facing the sector are minimised. “We are on the right track,” Ms Woiso said, “despite tight liquidity conditions in the market, which affects all banks.”
The central bank, BoT, in the first half of this year raised the minimum statutory deposit ratio by 2.0 per cent to 10 per cent. The move hit hard the money in circulation making banks to compete on mobilising deposits.
The bank, among top 10, in the country, attributed the first half profit to improvement in increased non-interest income that rose to 11.9bn/- in this year from 8.4bn/- in 2014.
Also the bank net interestincome went up to 14.89bn/- in the first half from 13.24bn/- of the same half last year, to push total asset by 5.3 per cent to 766.59bn/-.
Speaking at a press conference, Ms Woiso said prudent lending enabled the bank’s non-performance loan (NPLs) to remain below 3.0 per cent.
The industrial rate is 5.0 per cent. Meanwhile, she said the bank is planning to raise its working capital in this second half by 30bn/- through right issues and senior debt. This follows increased scale of the bank’s operations. The bank currently has a capital of 74bn/-.
“The right issue of equity shares and issuance of corporate bonds, the Core Capital Adequacy Ratio and Total Capital Adequacy Ratio of the bank are expected to improve above 15 per cent levels,” Ms Woiso said.
Talking of the loan portfolio, she said agriculture, manufacturing, trade, hotel and restaurant, tourism and real estate are top six sectors that dominated the lending portfolio in this year’s second quarter.
Bank M, ranked the eighth largest bank in terms of profitability and balance sheet, opened its doors to the public in 2007 with the conviction to provide world class banking services in Africa and add value to clients with customised products and services.
Bank M will mark its 8th anniversary this month. The bank has, in the past seven years of operations, capitalised on its efficient delivery channels and its quality service delivery to capture the business of most of the corporates in the country.
Apart from being awarded the Commercial Bank of the Year—Tanzania award for 2015, Bank M has scooped a number of other international awards recently such as the Best corporate Bank and the Best Community Development Bank for East Africa granted by the Banker Africa.
Originally published on DailyNews Tanzania
