The Bank of Kigali (BK) has revealed a plan to have all its services digitalized in the next two years following the good performance in its digital services.
The bank said that it has invested heavily in IT infrastructure and digital tools which are cost efficient and currently this is performing at a good level though the bank has a bigger ambition.
For instance, 70% of BK’s clients are transacting on digital channels but the bank targets 90% digital transactions for all its clients; of 85% across the bank’s operations.
“It is enabling us to provide services remotely and people can access our self service channels and it is enabling us to grow without necessarily growing our branch foot print or even our staff,” said Dr. Diane Karusisi, the BK CEO.
This has seen the bank witness a stable cost to income ratio which has for the first time hit a 40% ratio and expected to remain stable despite the fact that the bank wants to grow its portfolio and client base.
“We want by 2025 to have all our services automated, to fully digital where someone can buy market shares, insurance and others online,” said Dr. Diane Karusisi, the BK CEO.
Karusisi made the revelation during a virtual press conference to unveil the BK Group Plc’s Quarter 3 & 9 months Financial Performance this Wednesday, November 29th, 2023.
In this quarter, the bank said that it managed to secure a net income Rwf55.1billion which is a 26% increase Year-on-Year (YoY) and also announced the Board of Directors (BoD) decision to have an interim payment of Rwf8billion in shares- payable this December.
Anita Umuhire- the BK Chief Finance Officer explained that this performance was mainly driven by three reasons around net interest income and non- funded incomes.
These are: the strong performance in non-funded income mainly by the good performance in the BK retail book and placements with other banks; a recovery from the hit on the non-funded income in the previous quarter which was caused by growth in forex income (Rwf3.6billion added),and growth in provisions in the 3rd quarter.
Karusisi said that in the quarter 4 outlook, the bank targets to hit a net income of Rwf70billion.
BK Group CEO Beata Habyarimana
“I believe we are on track to getting there. We even may exceed slightly our target for the year 2023,” Karusisi said.
BK Group CEO, Béata U. Habyarimana said that looking at the economy projects (6%) next year, BK will retain its role as a major driver in business and trade though the trends in agriculture are expected to be affected by climate change.
Habyarimana said that the bank will focus on digitalising farming tools to ensure productivity and expect to improve next year as we hope to be among the pioneers.
The BK Group Performance
Habyarimana said that other BK Group subsidiaries witnessed a good growth and will continue to drive the economy in business and industry especially that there is a reduction in inflation and that there is increased investment attraction in the region.
The CEO showed that good growth (YoY) has been seen at BK General insurance (16%), BK Insurance (26%) and the BKTecHouse which has been revamped to a revenue growth of 22% and a 16% in net operating income.
Habyarimana stated that the Group will focus on increased agriculture de-risking through insurance and providing digital tools to farmers but engage in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) domain with hope to be one of the pioneers and lead by next year.
