Co-operative Bank of Kenya announced on Wednesday (May 19th) that its net profit was 3.46 billion shillings (32 million USD) in the first quarter of 2021. This is a decrease of 3.6% compared to the same period of the previous year.
This poor performance is mainly due to the increase in provisioning for defaults. Moreover, this prudential management had an impact on operating expenses, increasing by 27% to 9.3 billion shillings (86 million USD).
“The group cautiously increased loan loss provisions to 2.3 billion shillings ($ 21 million) in the first quarter of the year, appreciating the challenges businesses and households continue to face as a result of the effects. of the ongoing pandemic, ”said Gideon Muriuki, Managing Director of Co-operative Bank of Kenya.
Meanwhile, customer deposits increased 16% to 393.8 billion shillings (3.6 billion USD), mostly interest-free deposits. For its part, the Mco-op Cash mobile wallet with more than 5.1 million registered customers disbursed loans worth 16.3 billion shillings (151 million USD) during the reporting period.
The portfolio has more than 4.6 million clients.
Regarding the insurance business Co-op Consultancy & Insurance Agency, it posted a profit before tax of 262.6 million shillings (2.4 million USD) thanks to a strong penetration of the bancassurance activities.
