Banco Nacional de Investimento’s (BNI) profit grew by 30 per cent in 2023, to more than 4.2 million dollars (265.2 million meticals), according to the report and accounts quoted by the Lusa news agency.
‘This performance has strengthened the bank’s ability to develop its activities in a sustainable way and its position as a solid and robust development and investment bank in the market,’ reads the document, in which BNI’s management details the indicators for 2023.
The growth in profits ‘favoured’ an increase in the return on average equity, to 7.09%, compared to 5.78% in 2022, and in the return on average assets, to 2.28%, compared to 2.02% in the same year, emphasises the management of BNI, which is 100% owned by the Mozambican state through the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE).
In addition, the bank says that capital and liquidity levels ‘improved significantly’, with the solvency ratio rising to 23.50 per cent, compared to 17.57 per cent the previous year, and the liquidity ratio to 106.89 per cent, compared to 95.39 per cent in 2022, ‘above the regulatory minimums of 12 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively’.
‘The year 2023 was challenging due to the high uncertainties and internal and external risks that conditioned the performance of the Mozambican economy in general, and the banking sector in particular, which required us to act promptly and very prudently with regard to capital allocation decisions in financial assets and the implementation of reinforced measures to improve the quality of assets and the credit portfolio,’ said the chairman of BNI’s executive committee, Abdul Jivane, in the message included in the report and accounts.
The document also stresses that, in 2023, non-performing loans ‘performed favourably’, with a ‘notable reduction of 32.50%’, falling to 1.3 billion meticals (21.1 million dollars), ‘almost all’ covered by guarantees, ‘limiting potential financial losses’.
‘This positive performance is the result of prudence in granting new loans, restructuring commercially viable operations, recovery through the courts and individual monitoring of borrowers, enabling proactive action to reduce the risk of default,’ the document reads.
However, although non-performing loans fell by 435 million meticals (6.8 million dollars) in one year, ‘the fall in the volume of the loan portfolio ended up limiting the improvement in quality’ by only 1.21 per cent compared to 2022, with the bank ending last year with a total loan portfolio of 4.6 billion meticals (73.2 million dollars).
The bank closed 2023 with total liabilities of more than 8.3 billion meticals (131.6 million dollars), a growth of 11.26 per cent compared to 2022, driven by the 84.09 per cent rise in customer funds (deposits), to 1.1 billion meticals (18.5 million dollars), and bond loans (12.57 per cent), ‘reflecting the broadening of the partner base’.
BNI approved the distribution of 27.86 per cent of its 2023 profits, equivalent to 75 million meticals (1.1 million dollars), in dividends to the state shareholder, with the rest going into legal reserves (30 per cent) and retained earnings (42.14 per cent).