eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
GetBucks Microfinance Bank Limited’s loan book for the six months ended December 31, 2018 grew by 52 percent to $32,3 million up from $21,6 million, financial statements released by the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed company have shown.
In a statement accompanying the results, Getbucks chairman Rungamo Mbire, said the strong performance was underpinned by growth in the productive SME loan segments and educational loans.
He said going forward higher revenues are expected from loans driven by a larger loan book.
This comes as total assets increased by 51 percent to $47 million due to increased loan disbursements and investments in property.
During the six months to December 2018, property plant and equipment went up to $2,6 million up from just $269,362 while investment property went up to $675,389 from $539,411.
The growth in assets helped the microfinance bank record a 16 percent growth in net profit to $3 million from $2,5 million. Earnings per share was slightly higher at 0,27 cents from 0,24 cents with the company declaring a dividend of 0,054 cents per share of $590,526 in total.
“This result was achieved through increased net income of $8,3 million from $6,4 million in the prior year. Interest expense increased by 137 percent as the bank increased borrowings in response to higher demand for lending from customers,” said Mbire.
Touching on the cost base, Mbire said rising costs had remained a significant challenge for the bank although the costs were contained below inflation.
“Cost grew by 30 percent even though inflation was 42 percent due to cost containment measure implemented by management.”
On the funding side, deposits from customers grew by $5,7 million up from $1,9 million. The deposits are split between customer accounts $3,4 million (FY2017: $1,5 million) and term deposits at $1,9 million.
The bank also increased its own borrowings to $20,4 million up from $11,5 million prior year comparative.
Some of the new money came from NMB, which availed $3,8 million at an interest rate of 10 percent per annum and $5 million from Ever Prosperous Worldwide at an interest rate of 17 percent per month.
