Africa-Press – Eswatini. Nedbank Eswatini Managing Director (MD) Fikile Nkosi says when it comes to bad debts, it could have been worse if the bank did not offer COVID-19 relief and payments holidays for clients.
Nkosi said it was worth noting that the world was coming from a very tough economic period due to COVID-19 and other economic shocks. She said interest rates had also been accelerating as it increased by over 400 basis points. The MD said such had a very negative impact on their clients’ affordability. “As they were going through this difficult time, obviously the loans they took before became unaffordable because their income has not grown in the same leaps and bounds,” said Nkosi. Nkosi was responding to questions from this publication in relation to the seemingly growing number of banks repossession of clients’ cars and properties. She was speaking during the virtual press briefing last week where the Nedbank Group was presenting its financials for the first half of 2023. Nkosi said Nedbank, in its relationship banking model, they looked into this and worked closely with their clients and looked at how best they could try and help their clients.
Parameters
She said what they have done at this stage, was to review their product parameters to try and make it softer for their clients. She said such have improved the level that could have been reached in terms of repossessions. Nkosi said where one saw the auction was when the bank had done more and above of what they could have offered. She said they had worked with the clients in terms of restructuring for COVID-19 and offered COVID-19 relief and payments holidays for clients. “After that we couldn’t go far and beyond because the COVID-19 period has now officially come to a close by regulators and government,” said Nkosi. She said therefore they were now in stage of rebuilding the economy and in this stage it was where they were offering their clients the reviewed products that were now user friendly.
Loans
“What you are seeing is actually over and above of what we have done. It could have been worse but we have tried to work closely with clients,” said Nkosi. Meanwhile, the World Bank had indicated that non-performing loans were rising; reaching 7.2 per cent in March 2023, up from 6.6 per cent in 2022 and 6.8 per cent in 2021. The ratio of non-performing loans remained above the Common Monetary Area threshold of five per cent. Reasons behind the increase include the ending of COVID-19 Relief Measures in December 2021, the effect of inflation on households and businesses in 2022, and the disruption to economic activity arising from adverse global developments. Continued interest rate increases might further increase non-performing loans in 2023.
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