The profits of Stanbic Bank Holdings Limited grew to Shs 269 billion in 2021 from Shs 242 billion in 2020 despite the challenging economic times, the firm announced.
The chief executive officer of Stanbic Bank, Anne Juuko said the performance was largely driven by strong growth in non-interest income earned by Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited, its anchor subsidiary of the group.
Experts had expected poor performance given that 2021 was challenging especially during the first three quarters when the Covid-19 pandemic peaked affecting several business activities across the country including securities and banking.
But the group appears to have weathered the storm.
According to the financial results released on March 30, Stanbic Bank Uganda net profits in 2021 increased to Shs 269 billion from Shs 243 billion registered the previous year, largely driven by growth in trading income.
Andrew Mashanda, the chief executive officer of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited said: "Much of the growth in the non-interest revenue was attributed to trading income which increased to Shs 233.7 billion 2021 from Shs 177.3 billion the previous year."
Juuko said the bank lent Shs 290 billion to the trade sector, which is the second highest employer in Uganda, lent Shs 225 billion to the household sector, Shs 223 billion to the building and construction sector, Shs 218 billion to manufacturing sector and Shs 150 billion to the agriculture sector.
However, even with these profits, the bank said with the profits, it was not sure whether it would be able to pay dividends to its shareholders due to a directive from Bank of Uganda stopping banks from paying dividends for at least two years due to the effects of Covid-19 on the economy.
Hannington Wasswa, the director Commercial Banking at Bank of Uganda said they can’t allow banks to payout dividends now before assessing their financial status.
"Shareholders should wait for some time because these banks still need to recover from the impacts of the pandemic," Wasswa said.
Highlights for 2021
- Profit-after-Tax for Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL) representing five subsidiaries rose 11% to Shs 269bn from Shs 242bn in 2020
- SUHL’s anchor subsidiary, Stanbic Bank Uganda posted Shs 275billion in profit after tax from Shs 243bn in 2020, largely driven by growth in trading revenue.
- Loans and advances grew to Shs 3.7 trillion from Shs 3.6 trillion in 2020
- Customer deposits increased from Shs 5.4 trillion (2020) to Shs 5.7 trillion