Housing Finance Bank (HFB) Friday October 26, 2018 announced the departure of Mathias Katamba (in featured photo) as its Managing Director.
In a statement, David Geoffrey Opiokello, the HFB Chairman Board of Directors said Michael K Mugabi had been appointed Katamba’s successor-in acting capacity.
Industry sources have heavily linked Katamba to a move to dfcu bank to replace Juma Kisaame who is poised to retire come December this year.
Katamba has been at the helm of HFB since 2014. But how has he performed for the largely government owned bank?
When he took charge in 2014, HFB had recorded a net profit of Shs4.25bn, down from Shs6.45bn in 2013. Under Katamba’s tenure, HFB has progressively recorded profits, albeit at a slow pace.
In 2015, the bank made a net profit of Shs14.68bn before it increased to Shs18bn in 2016. In 2017, the bank made a net profit of Shs19.9bn, making it the ninth most profitable bank in Uganda. In terms of ranking, HFB was the 11th most profitable bank in Uganda when Katamba assumed office.
Katamba has also grown the bank’s assets by 23% from Shs597bn in 2014 when he joined to Shs733bn in 2017, making Housing Finance Bank the 12th largest bank in Uganda in terms of assets. However, when he joined the bank in 2014, HFB was occupying the 10th position in as far as largest banks with assets in Uganda are concerned.
The bank’s total assets stood at Shs618.5bn in 2015 before increasing to Shs680.2bn in 2016.
In terms of loans advanced to customers, the growth hasn’t been very impressive for HFB under Katamba’s tenure. Loans to customers have only grown from Shs397.6bn in 2014 when he joined the bank to a mere Shs455.10bn in 2017.
In fact, loans advanced to customers reduced to Shs367.80bn in 2015 before increasing to Shs401.40bn in 2016. As of 2017, HFB is the 9th largest bank by customer lending in a market of 24 banks. It is the same position the bank had in 2014.
Katamba has also managed to grow the bank’s customer deposits to Shs379.3bn in 2017, up from Shs298.3bn in 2014.
However, Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) have remained quite high under his leadership.
HFB’s NPLs stood at Shs18.4bn in 2014 before reducing to Shs16.5bn. However, in 2016, NPLs increased to Shs30.5bn before reducing to Shs18.5bn in 2017.
Capitalization
It should be noted that Housing Finance Bank was seeking Shs60bn capitalization from government. However, on 8th January 2018, David Bahati, State Minister for Planning took to the floor of Parliament to withdraw the capitalization motion after several MPs queried the move.
The motion for a resolution of Parliament to authorise government to increase the share capital of Housing Finance Bank (capitalisation) was tabled before Parliament on 24th May 2017 by Bahati.
The capitalization was to enable the Bank expand mortgages in line with Government policy, and to deal with other capital requirements set by Bank of Uganda.
Who is Katamba?
Katamba’s banking career experience spans over 18 years.
He has served the banking sector in various capacities at various institutions including Orient Bank, Post Bank, Barclays Bank, Pride Micro Finance , Finance Trust Bank and Housing Finance Bank.
He holds an MSc (Financial Management) degree from the University of East London with additional qualifications from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the University of Pennyslavia’s The Wharton School.
