Stanbic Uganda posts record Shs412 billion profits

Stanbic Uganda, a franchise of the Standard Bank Group—Africa’s largest commercial bank by assets, has registered the highest ever profit after tax of Shs412 billion for the period ending December 2023, representing 15.2 percent growth from Shs357 billion it earned in the previous year.

The financial results reveal that in 2023 the bank’s Customer Deposits grew to Shs6.3 trillion from Shs6.1 trillion, similarly its total assets grew to Shs 9.3 trillion in 2023 from Shs 9.1 trillion in 2022.
During the period, its net loans and advances grew to Shs4.2 trillion from Shs 4.1 trillion in 2022, while total revenue grew Shs1.19 trillion from Shs1.04 trillion.
Stanbic Bank Uganda is the largest commercial bank in Uganda with 81 branches and 178 ATMs across the country.

Presenting the financial results for 2023 at Kampala Serena Hotel, the bank’s outgoing chief executive officer, Ms Anne Juuko, said on March 25 that “Given the prevalent high interest rates in 2023, the bank had to devise innovative approaches, as we have done over the last four years—to ease the burden of borrowing on clients especially smallholder farmers, women owned businesses, civil servants, and government of Uganda which enabled them to access credit under friendly and flexible terms.”

According to her, the bank in 2023 extended the repayment tenure of existing personal loans to up to seven years, from five and created the much needed legroom for top-up lending which enabled access to money to finance pressing needs such as school, medical and household expenses. 
“As a result, our consumer loan book grew by Shs369 billion in 2023 from Shs309 billion in the previous year,” she said.
Ms Juuko said in 2023, Stanbic disbursed over Shs 160 billion in affordable loans to farmers, women owned businesses, through the SACCO lending and capacity building programme, and Stanbic4Her.

While through Stanbic4Her alone, Ms Juuko said loans worth nearly Shs80 billion were disbursed at 15.5 percent interest rate while over 50, 000 women have undergone capacity building training. Meanwhile, over two million members attached to 6,000 SACCOs accessed affordable credit at 10 percent to the tune of Shs85 billion indirectly impacting 10 million Ugandans.

She further stated that FlexiPay which is Stanbic Uganda’s response to the rising popularity of digital wallets in the industry saw good growth in users with wallets increasing from 390, 000 to over 840, 000 generating a transaction value of Shs.464 billion in 2023.
Stanbic Uganda Holding Limited (SUHL) Chief Executive, Mr Francis Karuhanga attributed the strong growth of the franchise to sustained exceptional performance by its anchor business—Stanbic Bank across its retail, business, and investment banking portfolios.

 “Despite the operating challenge in 2023, our business demonstrated resilience and sustained double digit growth with Return on Equity of 22.5 percent and shareholder returns increasing to Shs 1.9 trillion in 2023 from UShs 1.78 trillion in 2022. As a result, we shall increase our dividend pay-out to 68 percent for the FY 2023, from 66 percent the previous year—subject to regulatory approvals,” said Mr Karuhanga.
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