Africa-Press – Lesotho. NEDBANK has witnessed growth despite tough economic challenges, delivering headline earnings of up to 10 percent to M7.3 billion. Terrence Sibiya, the Managing Executive for Client Coverage Nedbank Corporate & Investment Banking in Africa, told stakeholders on Tuesday that the return on equity, that is up to 14.2 percent compared to the same time during the first half of 2022 which was only 13.6 percent.
“Obviously, if you’re a Nedbank shareholder, you’ll be pleased to know that the interim dividend of 171 cents per share was also up by 11 percent, which in this environment is a remarkable performance,” Sibiya said.
“We also saw very strong growth in digital,” he said. He said the bank’s strategy is to “deliver very comprehensive digital strategy across the continent”.
Sibiya said they saw strong growth in digital clients in South Africa and across the regions. The bank was also ranked number one in terms of customer satisfaction, both in Mozambique and South Africa.
He said there was a solid financial performance for the group across the board despite the fact that the bank had a 57 percent increase in the impairment charge and this was particularly seen in the retail consumer banking market.
“I think we are pleased as a team that we were able to also deliver a stellar performance and we’ve achieved an improved performance not just in the static operations but also strong operations from our associate investment or shareholding in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated,” he said.
Sibiya said the bank’s client numbers across the region have grown by five percent, mostly in the entry level banking segment, which is being driven by digital platforms like Mobi money wallet. He said the bank’s digitally active clients across the region grew from 57 percent to more than 60 percent.
“The 60 percent of our overall total client base now interacts with us are digitally active, which is very good because that means our strategy on digitising and migration of clients onto a digital platforms and their usage is growing,” he said. He said 95 percent of digitally active clients are using Nedbank money app as their preferred channel of choice.
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