02 Apr 2023

The ABSA Botswana Board of Directors have declared a dividend of 40 thebe per share after the bank posted an impressive profit before tax of P880 million for the financial year ending December 2022.

Speaking at the launch of the financial results on Thursday, the bank’s financial director, Ms Cynthia Morapedi said their profits increased by 33 per cent despite the challenging environment.

The total amount to be paid through dividends is P445 million.

The profit has been brought by an 87 per cent reduction in credit losses to P10 million, a 13 per cent increase in trading income and a four per cent increase in net fee and commission income.

Operating expenses have been maintained through the bank’s cost containment strategy with results moving from P910 million to P968 million.

For the managing director, Ms Keabetswe Pheko-Moshagane, the results show that they have exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels for most of their key indicators.

“Most importantly, our performance is due to strong pre-provision profit growth, which is driven by solid revenue growth and unwavering focus on efficiency. This demonstrates that indeed our strategy is well executed and we are on the right track to meet our stakeholders’ expectations,” she said.

She further said the cost to income ratio improved to 52 per cent from 55 in the previous year.

The ABSA Botswana balance sheet registered growth of six per cent driven by an increase in advances. “It gives me great pleasure and confidence to affirm to all our key stakeholders that we have the right leaders and team in place to deliver our strategy as evidenced by our impressive financial performance,” she said.

She said in line with their pillar of being the primary partner for their clients, ABSA introduced a number of products during the year.

ABSA launched multi-residential property financing for retail customers, hence making it easy for them to venture into property investment.

Ms Pheko-Moshagane also said they partnered with SCI Wealth Botswana to help their clients to access wealth creation and protection advisory services.

The bank also partnered with iBranch Youth Hub and they engaged the youth through multiple university activities.

“As a result, we have seen growth in our customer numbers,” she said. 

She said in 2022 they continued to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through their Enterprise Support Chain and Development Programme.

“The programme allows ABSA to support customers to access finance and markets, as well as capacity building,” she said.

She said the programme had forged strategic partnerships with large corporates and close to 4 000 individuals were trained in business skills and also helped to create over 1000 jobs.

“I am pleased to advise that ABSA Botswana also introduced Unsecured Bid Bonds to align to the ever-changing corporate landscape in Botswana and ensure we remain a preferred banking partner,” she said. Ends