KCB Group shareholders' meeting. [Photo/ke.kcbbankgroup.com]
KCB Group shareholders have today approved a 50 per cent increase in dividend pay-out on the back of the lender’s good performance last year.
The Bank reported a pre-tax profit of Shs. 29.1 billion in 2016, compared to the previous year’s Kshs. 26.5 billion the previous year, a 10% increase driven by growth in the loan book, focused investments, cost containment, and positive developments in the mobile banking space.
“The increased payout is a confirmation that we are continually building a sustainable business that is focused on giving value to customers and shareholders,” said the KCB Group Chairman Ngeny Biwott told shareholders during the 2017 Annual General Meeting held at the Safaricom Indoor Arena, Kasarani.
He underlined the Bank’s impressive growth story in light of various unpredictable events that rocked the banking industry especially the interest rate capping and a challenging operating environment in South Sudan.
“We expect the effects of the interest rate regime to be felt fully in 2017, though, once again, our continued investment in financial technology is expected to absorb some of the anticipated slowdown in earnings from the other products,” said Mr. Biwott.
At the meeting, shareholders re-elected two board members to the Board; The Cabinet Secretary – National Treasury and Ms. Georgina Malombe. The shareholders further approved the retirement and replacement of two board members, having attained the age of 70 years; Mrs. Charity Muya-Ngaruiya and Gen. Rtd. Joseph Kibwana.
The Bank said it was projecting improved performance in the coming years, riding on significant investments in financial technology.
“KCB has been making significant advancement in technologies having acquired over 10 million customers on its mobile platform either directly or through partnerships over the past 5 years. We are deepening this focus this year and beyond to continually build a strong and sustainable brand,” said KCB Group CEO and MD Joshua Oigara.
“We are pushing for higher volumes, more agile lending, and making a foray into new sectors that were not active in before. We want to assure our customers of sustained growth, despite the increased regulation in our markets” said the Group CEO adding that non-branch channel systems — Mbenki, KCB M-PESA, Mobi payments — accounted for 77% of total transactions in 2016. Since inception of the flagship KCB Mpesa in March 2015, the Bank has disbursed over Kshs. 16.5 billion in loans to over 7.8 million customers, instantly on their mobile phones. Over 90% of total loans processed in the year were performed on mobile phones.
The Annual General Meeting also re-appointed Messrs. KPMG Kenya, Certified Public Accountants, as the Auditors of the Company for the next one year.