By Business Reporter
ACCORDING to the latest financials of FNB Namibia Holding Limited Group, the group executed is growth strategy well, in terms of its core business, during the year ended 30 June 2017.
Profit for the period was N$1.1 billion, compared to N$1.2 billion during the previous year.
Advances grew by 9.6 percent, compared to market credit extension of 8 percent, while deposits increased by 9.7 percent.
The number of active accounts increased by 4 percent, despite the high number of retrenchments in the country, this as a result of the good growth of its core businesses, the group said this morning, during the announcement of its financials.
Interest revenue increased by 15 percent, and normalised non-interest revenue grew by 7 percent.
The macroeconomic environment, however, remained tough during the period under review.
This was the case globally, in the rest of sub-Saharan region and locally.
A number of countries, including Namibia, had to deal with ongoing commodity price challenges and increased cost of liquidity (up by 26 percent).
“During the year the Namibian economy continued to struggle as gross domestic product numbers confirmed that the economy remained in the grip of a recession for four consecutive quarters. Being a responsible lender, we continued our prudent approach to good quality asset growth, maintaining the group’s strong capital levels, and managing liquidity needs dynamically,” said FNB Chief Financial Officer, Oscar Capelao.
“Although the group continued its investments in staff, infrastructure and risk management (operating expenses up by 17 percent), its performance is still positively correlated to Namibia’s economic performance. The group positioned all its operating entities to make the most of the limited growth opportunities and produce another set of satisfactory results in an increasingly difficult operating environment.”