KAMPALA – Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL) to which Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited (SBU) is a subsidiary has published its 2020 full year results, with profit after tax of UGX 242 Billion.
The institution agrees that 2020 was quite a challenging year given the impact of the pandemic across the globe but despite the tough period, Stanbic Uganda Holdings demonstrated resilience and delivered a commendable performance.
Customer deposits grew year on year from UGX 4.7 trillion to UGX 5.4 trillion, which further supported new credit to key sectors in much need of support especially during the peak of the pandemic.
According to Andrew Mashanda the Chief Executive of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Ltd said, Loans and advances increased by 27% year on year from UGX 2.8 trillion to UGX 3.6 trillion as more clients acquired loans to sustain their businesses.
Mr. Mashanda also shared a progress update on the holding company’s key initiatives and achievements in 2020. He explained that in 2018, given the emergence of non-traditional competitors in financial services, a strategic decision was taken to diversify revenue streams from the banking business, essentially creating new pools of revenue for the franchise and this led to the creation of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited.
Mashanda shared that the holding company is strategically positioned to build and leverage on the strength of the banking brand and transport this to other opportunities in other ecosystems that are beyond banking.
“This is the first phase of our strategy of transforming the franchise here in Uganda into the leading digital platform services organization, which is now well on course. The anchor subsidiary is Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited. We have now established Stanbic Properties Uganda Limited, a real estate business, Stanbic Business Incubator Limited, FlyHub Uganda Limited, a technology business which is the bedrock of our digital platform services organisation, and SBG Securities Limited, which is a stockbroking and asset management business,” he said.
Mashanda added that the latter is still going through the process of licensing and is expected to commence business soon. SUHL is appropriately positioned to enhance its value offerings, meet the needs of clients and increase value for stakeholders.
Speaking at the media briefing, Anne Juuko, the Chief Executive for Stanbic Bank Uganda shared that it was an incredibly difficult year for the entire economy, but Stanbic has shown that it remains a strong and well capitalised bank committed to contributing to economic growth and transformation.
She explained that their aim is to ensure their customers can benefit from more affordable lending rates and they also offered credit relief programmes to their customers in response to Covid–19 challenges with over UGX 800 billion worth of loans were restructured in 2020.
“We increased our support to the community and invested over UGX 3.9 billion through our CSI programmes. We made donations to frontline health works in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, contributed food and supplies to local communities where we operate and continued to provide support in the areas of education, environment and maternal health,” she said.
To complement government measures to offer relief to customers amidst the pandemic, Stanbic Bank consistently lowered the prime lending rate in tandem with the Central Bank Rate (CBR), from 18% to 16%. This saved customer’s interest payments totalling UGX 26 billion.
Looking ahead, as Uganda’s Oil and Gas sector is set to achieve the Final Investment Decision soon, Stanbic will play an instrumental role in the development of the sector.
According to Juuko, the emergence of oil and gas will create vast opportunities for the local economy and their role as a Bank is to provide financial solutions to clients across the entire value chain especially for local companies looking to participate in the sector.
“Stanbic remains committed to its purpose ‘Uganda is our home and we drive her growth’ by contributing to economic growth and transformation. We shall continue to deliver the right solutions for our clients, as we conduct our business in a responsible and sustainable manner to deliver shared prosperity for all our stakeholders.”
