I&M bank Rwanda has allocated Rwf2.99 billion in payout to its shareholders as dividends. This was approved by shareholders during the Annual General Meeting of the bank on Monday. Addressing the meeting, Bill Irwin, Chairman Board of Directors, told the shareholders that on every share they will receive Rwf5.91, up from Rwf5.16 they received last year putting an increase in dividend share at 14 per cent. The increase in the dividend payout came as a result of an increase in the annual turnover of the bank’s operations in 2018. The financial statement of the bank for the year-end 2018, showed that the bank made a profit of Rwf7.5 billion after tax up from Rwf6.5 billion that was registered in 2017 about 14.6 per cent increase. A review of the results shows positive performance across all financial indices as the bank’s total deposits reached Rwf230 billion, recording a 10.4 per cent year-on-year growth from Rwf209 billion in December 2017 while the loan portfolio recorded a growth of 15.4 per cent as of December 31, 2018. Robin C Bairstow, Managing Director, told the shareholders that though the dividend payout comprises 40 per cent of the total revenue, considering the strategy, the rest of the profits (60 per cent), will go into growing the business, especially on avenues that are to diversify the income stream. Responding to queries on how the bank is complying with the new regulation directives from the National Bank of Rwanda, which require all commercial banks to increase their minimum capital to Rwf20 billion, he said they are in position to comply. Bairstow said that the new regulation will have no impact on the performance of the bank given the timeframe set for compliance and that the lender has retained earnings amounting to Rwf39 billion, which are sufficient for the bank to comply with requirement. Faustin Byishimo, the Executive Director, also assured the shareholders that the new regulation had no effect on dividend payouts. Going forward, Byishimo said that the bank plans to continue working with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), specifically those in the agriculture and trade sectors. In the line of SMEs, the bank last year secured a loan worth USD10 million from International Finance Corporation, a private arm of the World Bank, which strengthened the bank’s lending ability to SMEs and by end of last year the bank had advanced loans to 3000 SMEs worth Rwf20 billion. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
