BK Group registers Rwf25 billion in profit
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Bank of Kigali CEO Diane Karusisi (C) addresses the media, and Jean Claude Munyangabo, the CEO of BK TecHouse and BK General Insurance CEO Alex Bahizi look on in Kigali yesterday. BK Group PLC has recorded a profit of Rwf25 billion in the first nine months of 2019, with its subsidiary commercial bank and insurance firms having the largest impact on its growth. / Sam Ngendahimana

BK Group PLC has recorded a profit of Rwf25 billion in the first nine months of 2019, with its subsidiary commercial bank and insurance arms having the largest impact on growth.

This is a 27 per cent increase from the previous amount recorded in the same period last year.

The third quarter contributed Rwf10.4 billion, a 66.6 per cent increase compared to the same time last year.

BK Group has four subsidiaries; Bank of Kigali, BK Insurance, BK TecHouse, and BK Capital.

Bank of Kigali, as at September 30, served over 325,000 retail customers, and over 240,000 corporate clients.

Retail clients’ balances grew to Rwf164.0 billion as of September 30.

Diane Karusisi, the CEO of BK Group, explained that the number of non-performing loans have been recovered positively.

"I am happy to say that (in) the past quarter, our efforts to recover the bank’s money have been quite positive. We had a large NPL that we have been able to recover fully, and it was quite a successful completion of that effort,” she said.

She further explained that it was achieved because of court and auction systems, among others work.

The NPL stock reduced to around Rwf38 billion last quarter, from around Rwf46 billion.

Among the factors that drove the profits in the nine months was a growth of the loan book that amounted to Rwf697.8 billion.

BK General Insurance registered a profit of Rwf1. 039b in quarter 3, compared to Rwf559 million registered the same period last year.

BK TecHouse registered sales revenue of Rwf788 million, compared to Rwf458 million registered the same period last year.

BK Capital Ltd’s total revenue in the third quarter increased by 73 per cent from the previous quarter, driven by fees from advisory services, fund management activities and commission from brokerage activities.

Projects financed by BK Group this year were in Energy, Transport and Manufacturing sectors.

BK Group’s total assets stood at 944.3 billion, as at September 30.

BK was recently listed among the top 100 banks in the latest African Business Magazine ranking.