The Nedbank group, one of the largest banking groups in Africa, with operations in South Africa, Namibia, Essuatíni, Mozambique, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, achieved growth of 20 percent in net results last year.
According to data shared by the bank on Thursday, March 9, at a press conference, the 14 billion rand (47.6 billion meticals) achieved as net results were driven by double-digit growth in revenues, a slightly higher loan loss ratio and good expense management.
Return on equity (ROE) within the period increased from 12.5 percent to 14 percent as a result of the improved return on group assets from 0.98 percent to 1.14 percent. Capital and liquidity positions improved, reaching multi-year highs.
Nedbank CEO Mike Brown noted that the bank recorded these strong financial performances despite the challenging macro-economic environment. “In 2022, the South African economy faced a number of global and domestic challenges, including the war in Ukraine, the confinements in China, slower global growth, lower commodity prices, destructive flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, persistent power outages, as well as higher interest rates by 325 basis points and inflation that peaked at 7.8% in June.”
Mike Brown added that all of the banking group’s business units reported comfortable earnings growth and higher return on equity.
In the particular case of Nedbank Mozambique, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), João Rodrigues, said that the 2022 performance results will only be available by the end of March. Still, he assured that in 2021 the bank had a quite good performance. “In 2021, we had net results of about 300 million meticais and in 2022 the results may reach 600 million meticais. So we believe that it’s going to be one of the best years in the history of the bank in terms of results. We are having an increasing contribution in the group”.
João Rodrigues justified that the performance is due to two main reasons: “The first is that the bank now belongs to a bigger family. By going from Banco Único to Nedbank we were able to reach other clients who didn’t look with confidence at the bank because of the shareholder structure. And the second is related to the people the bank has, because we depend on their intelligence, dedication and commitment to grow,” he concluded.
