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Equity Group’s half-year results continue to reflect a sustained digital transformation with 99% of all customer transactions now happening outside the branch network.
“Covid-19 acted as a tailwind to our efforts of digitising our business,” said Dr James Mwangi, Group Managing Director and CEO while releasing the results.
“The business transformation has supported recovery and built resilience in the business. Going online and virtual through digitisation has brought ease and convenience to our customers resulting in increased uptake of our products and growth of the business”, added Dr Mwangi.
Over the last three years during the Covid-19 pandemic, Equity Group has gone through its greatest business transformation in line with the environmental challenges.
“Equity Group had adopted a strategy of business transformation through digitisation to offer customers a more online business experience offering ease and convenience. Digitisation compresses time and geography, transforming Equity banking experience from where you go, to what you do on your own devices, whatever time, wherever you are, a truly 24 hours banking experience,” said Dr Mwangi
“While our agility and flexibility allowed us to increase our software engineers by 600 new staff and our Chief Information Officers to 17 from one, Covid-19 coping, mitigation and adaptation protocols acted as a catalyst and tailwind for customers adoption of digital tools, online practices and change of technology adoption culture to deliver a speedy business transformation of the look, feel and experience of the Equity Group business,” he added.
Between June 2019 and June 2022, digital banking transactions through mobile and internet channels, Agency and Merchant infrastructure doubled from 330 million to 663.9 million.
During the same period transactions on the Group’s own infrastructure of branches and ATMs declined from 25.3 million to 19.2 million transactions delivering an online self-service business model with 99% of banking transactions being outside the branch.
This corresponds to 74% of the value of transactions, leaving branches to do high-value transactions. During the same period, the value of digital transactions has grown over 400% to Kshs 4.4 trillion up from Kshs 1.2trillion while the value of branch and ATMs based transactions have grown to Kshs 1.7trillion up from Kshs 1.1 trillion.
The Group has witnessed take-off of its business-to-business, consumer digital payments and consumer-to-business payments through corporate internet cash and liquidity management EazzyBiz and retail payment solutions. Pay With Equity merchant solutions have grown by nearly 400% from June 2019 to June 2022 from 13.5 million transactions to 52.2 million transactions.
Year on year personal internet transactions grew by 1,081% from 600,000 to 7.5 million transactions with the value of the transactions growing by 366% from Kshs 39.5 billion to Kshs 184 billion.
Consumer to business retail commerce digital transactions on Pay with Equity retail merchants grew by 382% from 7.8 million to 37.5 million transactions whose value grew by 314% from Kshs 42.2 billion to Kshs 174.8 billion.
Business-to-consumer payments transactions through the internet Equity cash and liquidity management solution EazzyBiz grew by 51% from 2.2 million transactions to 3.3 million transactions with value growing by 52% from Kshs 637 billion to Kshs 966.7 billion.
The value of mobile transactions on Equitel grew by 62% from Kshs 844 billion to Kshs 1.366 trillion while Equity mobile app value of transactions grew 97% to Kshs 552.9 billion up from Kshs 280.1 billion.
“To align to the realities of the operating environment, the business challenges of disruptions by Covid-19 and the broken global supply chains, the Group strategically opted to focus on becoming a leading Trade Finance regional bank to ease the cost of financing trade while facilitating cross border trade in the East African common market and the African Continental Free Trade Area,” said Dr Mwangi.
The Group’s recovery and resilience strategy saw the Group’s profit after tax grow by 36% to Kshs 24.4 billion up from Kshs 17.9 billion for the comparative half year results of the previous year.
The profit growth was principally driven by a 29% growth in interest income to Kshs 55 billion up from Kshs 42.8 billion as a result of the growth of loans to customers by 29% to Kshs 650.6 billion up from Kshs 504.8 billion.
“The loan growth was targeted to supporting our clients to recover and rebuild after the Covid-19 business disruptions while allowing re-purposing and retooling for resilience and agility to take advantage of emerging opportunities and green shoots in the real economy, “said Dr Mwangi.
