AfricaPress-Tanzania: NMB Bank Plc has generated the highest profit in the history of the banking sector in the country after posting 45 per cent increase compared to the previous year on account of strong stakeholder support, operational excellence, and solid strategy execution.
The largest lender in the land in terms of profits, assets and balance sheet-NMB bank registered 205.5bn/- profit after tax in the year ended December last year compared to 142.2bn/- recorded in 2019.
The bank’s profit before tax increased to 295.4bn/- in the year under review compared to 211.1bn/- posted in the previous year.
Commenting on the results in Dar es Salaam on Thursday, the NMB Bank Plc Chief Executive Officer, Ms Ruth Zaipuna, attributed the Bank’s impressive performance footed on strategic execution focused on growing operating income and operational efficiency by leveraging on technology to drive customer experience and cost efficiency.
“The year 2020 despite the global uncertainties in the wake of a global pandemic, we delivered a record-setting performance with strong stakeholder support, operational excellence, and solid strategy execution,” she said.
She added, the market at large tremendously benefited from the unprecedented monetary and fiscal support by our Central Bank and the government. This in turn led to our profits reaching all-time high.
Analysts have pointed that the impressive results from the nation’s largest bank, is a testament of the resilience and attraction of the Tanzanian economy, even as the world grapples with longer curbs.
The published unaudited financial statements also show the growth has been driven by an increase in the Bank’s operating income, which grew by 15 per cent, and cost efficiency measures that contained operating costs at a marginal increase of only 2 per cent Year on Year.
Following the bank’s strategic push for high efficiency on operations and digital channels, non-funded income increased by 19 per cent from 224bn/- in 2019 to 266bn/-in 2020 driven by bank’s focus on digital offering, while interest income increased by 13 per cent from 632bn/-in 2019 to 713bn/-in 2020.
Further, confirming the Bank’s growing reputation as an economic development financier, NMB’s Gross loans and advances to customers increased by 15 per cent to 4.1tri/- in 2020, as the bank continued to extend credit to the private sector.
Overall, customer deposits rose by 7 per cent from 4.9tri/- in the previous year to 5.2tri/- in 2020, highlighting customers’ continued trust in NMB Bank. Alongside this financial achievement, the Bank has also received a number of awards, highlighting the growth trajectory of the institution.
In 2020, the NMB’s achievements led to internationally acclaimed recognition as the Safest Bank in Tanzania by Global Finance magazine, and being named Best Bank in Tanzania for 8th consecutive time by Euromoney magazine.
With approximately 22 per cent market share in both loans and customer deposits, NMB has the largest Balance Sheet in the banking industry and remains the most profitable Bank in the country. Reflecting on these achievements, Ms Zaipuna stated that “We certainly do not think this is as good as it can be.
We continue to see opportunities across the market and going forward we aim to strengthen our customer relations through further development of remote channels, taking advantage of advanced data analytics and personalization of range of products and services offered.
We would like to thank our customers, shareholders, the government, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), our strategic partners and our dedicated staff for their continued support and partnership with NMB Bank,” Ms. Zaipuna added.
With over 4 million customers, NMB bank has 226 branches, over 8,000 Agents (Wakala) and more than 800 ATMs across the country and is represented in all districts of Tanzania.
