Equity Group chief executive officer James Mwangi has declared Equity Bank as East Africa’s largest bank. This is after the bank posted a Sh. 40 billion net profit in the 12 months period that ended in December 31, 2021.

This high profit also saw the bank’s assets jump to Sh. 1.3 trillion. Following this high profit,, the bank has declared that it will pay its investors Sh. 3 dividend per share.

During the year under review, Equity’s loan book grew by 23 per cent to Sh. 587.7 billion. Total assets increased by 28.5 per cent to Sh. 1.3 trillion while customer deposits increased by 29.4 per cent to Sh. 958.9 billion.

In the same vein, total interest income grew by 27.8 per cent to Sh.94.3 billion while loan provisions went down by 78 per cent to Sh. 5.8 billion. The bank’s earnings per share went up by 98 per cent to 10.

“The bulk of customers’ engagement and consumption of banking products and services is now on digital channels. These include the internet and mobile on self-service devices delivering 24-hour banking experiences and convenience,” said Dr. Mwangi.

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Dr. Mwangi further noted that the bank had trained 436,000 young people and provided them with credit amounting to Sh. 136 billion. “In a period of two years, they have been able to generate 1.2 million jobs,” he said.

Interestingly, the bank’s net profit in the third quarter of 2021 grew by 79 per cent to hit Sh. 26.9 billion as the lender substantially cut its stock of bad loans.

The nine-months profit has raced past the Sh.20.1 billion profit that the lender posted in the full-year ended December 2020.

According to Dr. Mwangi, Equity has been implementing a twin strategy of offensive and defensive through which the lender has aggressively sought to grow its revenue while managing its costs, particularly bad loans. “We are very confident that our loan book will continue to improve,” said Mwangi.