As more Rwandans embrace e-economy facilities, I&M Bank is moving to expand and strengthen its mobile and e-banking platforms to take advantage of the continued growth in uptake and use of these platforms. The move supports the push by the government and central bank for Rwandans to embrace a cashless economy to reduce paper money in circulation. 

Presently, most payments for government services, including filing tax returns, are done online, while debit and credit card use is going up steadily among all segments of the population.

Robin Bairstow, the I&M Bank managing director, said the bank will be deploying more automatic teller machines (ATMs), especially in high-traffic areas like shopping malls and service stations as one of the steps to achieve these goals.

The lender will also open a fully-fledged ‘smart branch’ that will solely offer electronic self-services, he added.

Bairstow was speaking at the release of the bank’s 2015 financial statement on Tuesday at the lender’s head offices in Kigali.

Meanwhile, lender’s net profit increased by 8 per cent to Rwf5 billion last year, from Rwf4.5 billion in the previous year. Bairstow said profit-before-tax went up by 10.3 per cent to 7.1 billion, from Rwf6.4 billion the previous year, while its total operating income increased from Rwf17.2 billion to Rwf19.8 billion over the reporting period. Total assets went up to Rwf172 billion from Rwf150 billion in 2014.

He attributed the bank’s performance partly to rollout of new products, expansion of its branch network, as well e-platforms. He said 135,000 transactions were conducted on the e-tax payment system, while mVisa platform uptake grew by 7,148 customers.

Faustin Byishimo, the executive director for business development, added that electronic delivery channels contributed significantly to last year’s revenue growth.

"Newly-introduced products, such as VISA cards, online and mobile banking grew 150 per cent in both volume and revenue.” Transactions via online and mobile banking rose significantly by 200 per cent, while the number of customers who applied for Visa cards went up by 600 per cent.

The bank’s home loans expanded by 27.8 per cent last year to Rwf3 billion, reflecting the growing appetite for mortgage products among Rwandans. The bank’s customer deposits grew by 14.2 per cent, loans and advances were up by 13.6 per cent.

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