AfricaPress-Tanzania: EXIM Bank Group gets out of the red to post a striking profit despite huddles brought by Covid-19 for the year ending last December.
The bank, the only lender to open overseas subsidiaries in three countries, has posted a cumulative pre-tax profit of 25.3bn/- in comparison to the loss before tax of 8.4bn/- in the previous year.
Exim’s Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr Jaffari Matundu said the positive operating results are an outcome of the perseverance of the business despite Covid-19 impact after capitalizing on performing sectors while containing expenditure to ensure optimization of its operations.
“Understanding the shock of the pandemic, the bank supported the impacted sectors during the year by restructuring their facilities in order to match their current cash flows and ensure the smooth running of their businesses,’’ Mr Matundu told journalists on Thursday.
The bank, at the end of last year, had given a moratorium of over 290bn/- in form of payment holidays and extension of loan repayment periods to help their clients in various sectors to absorb the impact of Covid-19 in their businesses.
“Our operation in Tanzania recorded a remarkable performance reporting a profit before tax of 18.8bn/- compared to a loss before tax of 14.5bn/- in the previous year. “The good performance was driven by an increase in asset quality following clean up done during the year which led to non-performing loans ratio improving to 7.4 per cent in December 2020 from 22.3per cent reported in December 2019,’’ the CEO jovial said.
As a result, impairment charge reduced significantly year on year and interest income increased by 4.5bn/- year-on-year.
The bank also optimized operating costs during the year without affecting its core operations.
In Tanzania, Exim, which also has operations in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Comoro and Uganda, was able to navigate the tide through segment-specific initiatives such as focusing and creating a niche market in the corporate and SME sector via the cash management solutions.
The bank said overseas subsidiaries in Djibouti and Comoros recorded a robust performance pre-tax profit of 4.9bn/-and 5.7bn/- respectively despite the impact of Coronavirus pandemic, thanks to interest income and non-funded income streams – forex trading and transaction banking and commissions on fund transfers.’
The Uganda recorded a loss of 3.9bn/-owing to Covid-19 that led to economy lock down in the country.
The Group total assets remained strong at 1.9bn/- while customer deposits base increased by 4.4 per cent during the last year fourth quarter to close at 1.38tri/-.
“Our operations in Tanzania, Djibouti and Uganda have all recorded remarkable growth in customers’ deposits during the quarter,” Mr Matundu said.
The bank also opened a new subsidiary via its Djibouti operation.
“With our relatively new presence in Ethiopia through our Djibouti operations, the bank intends to further interregional businesses as part of its strategy to grow its distribution footprint at locations that brings it closer to its customers, while offering a refreshing banking experience,” the CEO said.
Group-wide, the lender now has 43 branches across its network: 30 in Tanzania, 6 in Comoros, 2 in Djibouti, 5 in Uganda and 1 in Ethiopia.
