Equity Group has returned strong quarter one results in a challenging economic environment amidst the multi-faceted Covid-19 health crisis citing a 54% growth in total assets, 58% growth in customer deposits, 64% growth in profit after tax and a 31% strong topline revenue growth.
Dr. James Mwangi, Equity Group CEO, while releasing the first quarter of 2021 financial results attributed this success to their purpose-driven strategy stating that, “Purpose has proved profitable”.
Equity Bank heavily specialized social impact investments in the health sector, utilized 1.7 billion in social response to society and eliminated mobile transaction fees despite the 1.5 billion Ksh it cost them. To allow firms to survive, 31% of the loan book was also set aside for up to three years of loan payment breaks. However, their interest income still grew by 32%.
“We kept the lights of the economies we operate in on, supported businesses to repurpose, retool and recover by supporting livelihoods of our customers during the crisis”, said Dr. Mwangi.
The bank boasts of taking advantage of consumer lifestyle changes amid the crisis which worked as a tailwind for human adoption of technology, resulting in changes in economic behavior. “Over the last one year, we have witnessed firsthand as our customers adopted our mobile and internet technology channels on self-service devices making our financial services offering truly a 24-hour service and lifestyle”, said Dr. Mwangi.
He added that the company took advantage of the opportunity and accelerated transformation by investing in and deploying fintech capabilities such as biodata, artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, and algorithms to support customer personalized products and services, resulting in a wide range of lifestyle capabilities as well as global reach and presence.
The Group registered a balance sheet expansion of 54% driven by a 58% growth in customer deposits and its regional subsidiaries registered resilience and robust growth to contribute 40% of total deposits and total assets and 23% profit before tax with Rwanda and Uganda delivering above cost of capital returns.
The experience over the last 3 years and riding the tide of Covid-19 multi crisis has brought forth the strength of the Group’s strong risk management culture of boldness, decisiveness and prudence. Despite all, the Group has been seen to emerged resilient with a strong foundation that gives hope and confidence of strong future performance as reflected by top line revenue growth.