Barclays Bank of Uganda Ltd recorded Shs68.84bn profit after tax in 2018, down from Shs72bn registered in 2017, representing a reduction of 4.38%.
This is according to the bank’s financial results for 2018 released yesterday.
A critical look at the figures show that the profit reduced due to increased expenditure and bad loans written off.
Whereas total income increased to Shs339bn in 2018, up from Shs304.4bn in 2017, total expenditure increased by 10.8% to Shs241.2bn in 2018, up from Shs217.6bn recorded a year earlier.
On other hand, bad loans written off grew by 26.1% to Shs18.79bn in 2018, up from Shs14.9bn in 2017.
On the whole, the bank registered impressive results.
Headed by Rakesh Jha as Managing Director, Barclays that will soon rebrand into Absa after its parent company Barclays Africa Group Ltd changed its name to Absa Group Ltd saw customer deposits grow by about 6% to Shs1.78 trillion in 2018, up from Shs1.68 trillion in 2017.
Loans advanced to customers increased to Shs1.17 trillion in 2018, up from Shs1.027 trillion recorded a year earlier.
Total assets also increased to Shs2.79 trillion in 2018 from Shs2.47 trillion in 2017.
On a further positive note, Barclays’ Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) reduced by 49.6% to Shs53.8bn in 2018, down from Shs106.78bn recorded a year earlier.
The bank’s shareholders will no doubt smile to the bank after proposed dividends remained unchanged at Shs30bn.
Commenting about the results, Rakesh (in featured photo) said: “It was a good year for the bank, we saw solid growth on the balance sheet, coupled with growth in income .we managed our costs well and portfolio quality has improved giving rise to very strong earnings for the bank.”
He added: “Two things that we have done effectively and intend to strengthen are; playing an important role in deepening financial inclusion to bring more people into formal banking sphere and skills creation in a country with a young population.”
