At the end of the first half of 2020, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) recorded a 40% drop in its net profit, i.e. 7.57 billion shillings (59.3 million euros) against 12.72 billion shillings (99 , 7 million euros) in the same period last year.

This corresponds to the most difficult semester for almost 10 years for the largest Kenyan banking group. In its press release published on Wednesday August 12, the banking establishment indicated that “this poor performance is linked to an increase in provisions following a higher credit risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

KCB boss Joshua Oigara said: “The second quarter was the toughest in our recent history as the pandemic affected economic activity in all markets. Most key sectors were nearly closed and our customers continue to face unprecedented challenges.”

And to add: “It was catastrophic. We have never seen our provisions go from an average of 3 billion shillings to more than 11 billion shillings.” Despite this situation, KCB remains optimistic given that the other indicators are green.

Thus, its operating profit increased by 17% to reach 45 billion shillings during the period against 38.6 billion shillings in June 2019.

Net interest income also rose 22% to 31.1 billion shillings from 25.4 billion shillings, thanks to additional investment in government securities and loans.

For its part, equity increased by 12%, from 117.5 billion shillings to 132.1 billion shillings. This is explained by the growth in retained earnings over the 12-month period ending June 2020.

Established in 2015, KCB Group, the leading bank in the country and in the East African Community (EAC), has more than 16 million customers with a balance sheet of 646.7 billion shillings (5.2 billion euros) in 2018.