Stanbic Uganda takes winning streak into 2020

April 1, 2021 in Business, Companies, Finance, Financial Services by Editor

The top executives of Stanbic Holdings subsidiaries line up this week: Dr. Huruna Mawanda – CE Flyhub Technologies, Andrew Mashanda – CE Stanbic Uganda Holdings Ltd (SUHL), Japheth Katie – Board Chairman SUHL, Anne Juuko – CE Stanbic Bank, Jorum Ongura – SBG Securities Uganda Ltd and Spencer Sabiti – CE Stanbic Properties Ltd.

Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL) to which Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited (SBU) is a subsidiary, published its 2020 full year results, with profit after tax of UGX 242 billion.

Andrew Mashanda, Chief Executive of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Ltd said, “2020 was quite a challenging year given the impact of the pandemic across the globe. Despite the tough period, Stanbic Uganda Holdings has demonstrated resilience and delivered a commendable performance.

Customer deposits grow year on year from UGX 4.7 trillion to UGX 5.4 trillion, which further supported new credit to key sectors in much need of support especially during the peak of the pandemic. Loans and advances increased by 27% year on year from UGX 2.8 trillion to UGX 3.6 trillion as more clients acquired loans to sustain their businesses.

In addition to the performance updates, Mashanda provided a progress update on the holding company’s key initiatives and achievements in 2020.

“In 2018, given the emergence of non-traditional competitors in financial services, a strategic decision was taken to diversify revenue streams from the banking business, essentially creating new pools of revenue for the franchise and this led to the creation of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited. The holding company is strategically positioned to build and leverage on the strength of the banking brand and transport this to other opportunities in other ecosystems that are beyond banking. This is the first phase of our strategy of transforming the franchise here in Uganda into the leading digital platform services organization, which is now well on course,” Mashanda said.

He said, “The anchor subsidiary is Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited. We have now established Stanbic Properties Uganda Limited, a real estate business, Stanbic Business Incubator Limited, FlyHub Uganda Limited, a technology business which is the bedrock of our digital platform services organisation, and SBG Securities Limited, which is a stockbroking and asset management business. The latter is still going through the process of licensing and is expected to commence business soon.”

Looking ahead, Mashanda said SUHL is appropriately positioned to enhance its value offerings, meet the needs of clients and increase value for stakeholders.

Speaking at the press conference, Anne Juuko, the Chief Executive for Stanbic Bank Uganda said, “It was an incredibly difficult year for the entire economy, but Stanbic has shown that it remains a strong and well capitalised bank committed to contributing to economic growth and transformation.”

To complement government measures to offer relief to customers amidst the pandemic, Stanbic Bank consistently lowered the prime lending rate in tandem with the Central Bank Rate (CBR), from 18% to 16%. This saved customer’s interest payments totaling UGX 26 billion.

Juuko said, “Our aim is to ensure our customers can benefit from more affordable lending rates.  We also offered credit relief programmes to our customers in response Covid–19 challenges with over UGX 800 billion worth of loans were restructured in 2020.”

In reference to the Bank’s responsibility to the communities in which it operates, Juuko said, “We increased our support to the community and invested over UGX 3.9 billion through our CSI programmes.  We made donations to frontline health works in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, contributed food and supplies to local communities where we operate and continued to provide support in the areas of education, environment and maternal health.”

Looking ahead, as Uganda’s oil and gas sector is set to achieve the Final Investment Decision soon, Stanbic will play an instrumental role in the development of the sector.

Juuko said, “The emergence of oil and gas will create vast opportunities for the local economy and our role as a Bank is to provide financial solutions to clients across the entire value chain especially for local companies looking to participate in the sector.”

Juuko emphasized, “Stanbic remains committed to its purpose ‘Uganda is our home and we drive her growth’ by contributing to economic growth and transformation.  We shall continue to deliver the right solutions for our clients, as we conduct our business in a responsible and sustainable manner to deliver shared prosperity for all our stakeholders.