Kenya Commercial Bank first-half pretax profit rises by 13 per cent to Sh13.2 billion

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), the country's largest bank by assets, said on Thursday its first-half pretax profit rose 13 percent to 13.20 billion shillings ($130 million), driven by growth in fees, commissions and interest income.

The bank reported pretax profit of 11.67 billion shillings in the first half last year.

Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Kimathi Kiambi told an investor briefing that gross fees and commissions rose 21 percent to 6.84 billion shillings, while net interest income rose 13 percent to 19.45 billion shillings.

A mobile loan service it offers in partnership with telecoms company Safaricom has attracted 2.1 million customers since its start in March and disbursed 2.1 billion shillings in loans, Chief Executive Joshua Oigara said.

KCB said this year it planned to expand its mobile phone transaction services and agency banking, whereby third-party operators offer basic banking services on its behalf.

Net loans and advances to customers climbed to 320.6 billion shillings from 244.01 billion shillings. Non-performing loans fell to 7.3 percent of its portfolio from 8.8 percent in first half of 2014.

Customer deposits rose to 443.04 billion shillings from 351.60 billion shillings.

Among its recent projects, KCB has set up an insurance agency business and an Islamic banking unit. In addition to Kenya, the bank operates in Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Burundi. ($1 = 101.5500 Kenyan shillings.