Posted on April 9, 2009 - by Gavin

Equity Bank opens 800 accounts daily…

Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA – Equity Bank Uganda, a subsidiary of Kenya’s largest financial institution is registering up to 800 new bank accounts on a daily basis, the bank’s head has said.

This new banking record was revealed by the Equity Uganda Managing Director, Mr. Charles W. Nalyaali during activities to officially launch the bank’s activities in Uganda last week.

“We have seen account opening jump from 40 – 60 accounts daily before we received the commercial bank license to 600 – 800 new accounts per day currently, across our 36 branches countrywide and this number we believe will continue to rise,” Nalyaali said.

In its home market, Equity is the dominant bank with 51% (3.3 million) of all bank accounts in Kenya while 70% of all new accounts opened up are with Equity. 

The Equity Group chief executive officer also revealed that Equity, with a market capitalization of KShs66 billion ($846.1 million) will in the next two months cross-list its shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).

“Equity will soon be cross-listed on the USE. We expect that within a month or two, Ugandans will be able to buy Equity Bank shares,” Dr. James Mwangi, the Equity Group chief executive officer said last week.

Dr. Mwangi who was in Kampala to officially unveil the operations of Equity Bank Uganda (a subsidiary of Equity Bank Kenya) said applications have been submitted to both the Bank of Uganda (BoU) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).

Equity entered Uganda’s financial services sector following last year’s UShs46 billion takeover of Uganda Microfinance Limited (UML) – the biggest microfinance deposit taking institution (MDI) at the time.

The multiple award-winning bank is 100% listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) with 73% of the shares owned by East Africans according to Dr. Mwangi.

 “Through the share splits that we have carried out over time so that more people can afford Equity shares, right now Equity is made up of 3.7 billion shares. If you divide that by the population of East Africa, every East African would hold 50 shares,” Mwangi said.

At the moment, a share of Equity on the NSE trades at KShs16 (UShs400) but the stock has embedded value as a result of the share splits and bonuses that have been done over time to bring down the share price.

For the year ending December 2008, Equity posted a pre-tax profit of KShs5.022 billion ($64.3 million).

This is up from KShs2.378 billion ($30.4 million) for the same period the year before.

Equity’s entry into Uganda and later Southern Sudan is anchored by an asset base of over $1.1 billion which makes Equity one of the most capitalized banks in East and Central Africa.

The managing director Equity Bank Uganda, Charles Nalyaali said Equity has abolished opening balances and minimum operating balances in an effort to reach out to more people.

 “This means that anyone can now open and maintain a bank account. It means that if you leave your UShs1,000 ($0.51) on the account, you will find it there even after a year and you can as well draw your UShs1,000. At Equity, if you bank UShs1 billion ($512,820) today, you can draw it tomorrow without hustle,” Nalyaali said.

The bank has also abolished account monthly maintenance fees and ledger fees in its endeavour to encourage people to save.

Nalyaali said the bank’s deposit products are aimed at encouraging a savings culture amongst Ugandans.

Since acquiring the commercial banking license in December last year, Equity Uganda is the fastest growing commercial bank in the country, with over 300,000 customers countrywide and an asset base in excess of UShs125 billion ($64.1 million).

Nalyaali said they will give borrowers a competitive interest rate. “We don’t just give you a loan though. You come and we negotiate and because now the dynamics are different, we shall give you the best deal around,” Nalyaali said.

According to Nalyaali, Equity is coming into the market with loans that do not necessarily require huge collateral.

“If a farmer wants to buy a cow, at Equity, the cow becomes the security for the loan,” Nalyaali said.

In Kenya, 78% of Equity’s loans are not secured, instead they are backed by the assets themselves; be it a cow, a taxi for public transport or a processing plant.

 Mwangi said if Equity Uganda cannot book a client’s loan here because it is too big, it can be booked in Nairobi.

“Our goal is to make Equity Bank the bank of choice in Eastern and Central Africa,” Mwangi said.

He said the group will endeavour to replicate in Uganda and everywhere they will go Equity’s successful business model.

 Mwangi said the opening of Equity Uganda was the first step of the group’s overall strategy to expand into the region – now looking at Southern Sudan and Rwanda.

This he said enables them provide inclusive customer focused financial services in line with the bank’s vision of championing the social economic prosperity for all people in Africa.