Head of Equity Bank James Mwangi, will take home 416 million Kenyan shillings in dividend after the regional lender announced a net profit of Sh19.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2018.
The bank’s profit for the year under review was five per cent more compared to the previous year when it posted Sh18.9 billion.
Following the results, the bank declared a dividend payout of Sh2 per share resulting into a total of Sh7.5 billion.
The Equity bank head, is the highest individual shareholder in the bank with 5.52 per cent stake of its 3.77 billion shares.
The chief executive controls a total of 208 million shares in the bank with a market value of Sh8.93 billion. Yesterday, Equity Bank’s share closed the day at Sh42.95.
James Mwangi’s stake in the bank is now above that of Co-operatives Bank’s Gideon Muriuki who has reduced his stake in the bank to 103 million shares from 110.3 million.
Muriuki’s shares had a market value of 1.54 billion considering the shares closed the day at Sh15.20 on NSE as at March 26th 2019.
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James Mwangi, attributed the good performance to increased focus on non-funded income driven by adoption of digital banking systems.
He said non-interest income streams contributed to 38 per cent of the firm’s total revenue.
The Equity bank head added that 93 percent of the lenders loans were transacted through mobile phones compared to 79 percent the previous year.
“This is the resilience we were pursuing to wade the headwinds of slow growth rate of the private sector,” Mwangi said during the release of the lenders full year results.
Equity Bank’s profits are now second highest behind KCB Group, among seven banks that have so far declared 2018 financial results.
The Bank (Equity) has reportedly also indicated that it is at an advanced stage of introducing Chinese financial services WeChat Pay and Alipay in the country.
A banker (name withheld) said Equity bank, the regional financial institution based in Kenya, plans to boost the presence of WeChat Pay and Alipay in Africa.
Speaking to Xinua News Agency, the Managing Director of Finserve Africa (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Equity Bank) , Jack Ngare stated that they are continuing to make the Chinese financial services technologies available in four East African countries; Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda.
According to Mr. Ngare, Finserve Africa is at advanced stages of rolling out WeChat Pay and Alipay to merchants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by the end of the year as well and thereafter to additional African markets.
He further added that its (Finserve Africa’s) payment gateway service will allow merchants in east and central Africa to accept payments from users of WeChat and Alipay.
Equity Bank currently has branches in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, and DRC.
