I&M Bank (Rwanda) Plc’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday, April 28, approved and adopted issuance of a one new fully-paid-up bonus share of a stated value of Rwf10 for every four ordinary shares held.

This will be issued to the existing shareholders in the company’s register as at May 13, 2021.

That means, for instance, if one holds 12 shares at the bank, they will now have 15 shares (1 new share for every four held).

Bonus shares are shares distributed by a firm to its current shareholders as fully paid up shares free of charge by capitalizing part of the said company’s revenue reserves.

The proposal to issue bonus shares was made by the Board of Directors in an attempt to comply with the Central Bank Regulation on minimum paid up capital.

The Central Bank in 2018 revised the new paid-up capital for commercial banks to Rwf20 billion from Rwf5 billion.

The issuance of Bonus shares will see the Share capital rise to Rwf15 billion from about Rwf12 billion currently.

Bonaventure Niyibizi was also elected to the Board of Directors of I&M Bank (Rwanda) Plc, where he will serve as the Board Chairperson as the first Rwandan in the modern history to hold the position at the Board.

I&M Bank (Rwanda) Plc registered an after-tax profit of Rwf5.1 billion in 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic which adversely affected the bank’s clients and the bank prudently increased its impairment provisions by 417% year on year to Frw5.5 billion at end of 2020 for further expected credit losses.

The lender reported a pre-tax profit of Rwf7.8 billion with the loan book portfolio growing by 19 per cent Year on Year to Rwf205 billion in December 2020.

Officials said that they are optimistic of a positive performance in 2020 despite risks in some sectors owing to the pandemic

The bank’s Managing Director, Robin Bairstow, said that they expend the bank to remain resilient and noted flexibility and existing strategies amid the global economic turmoil.

Among the sectors that he noted exhibit risk include manufacturing, transport and sections on retail owing to the pandemic and measures to curb it.

However, he noted that the lender made provisions taking into context credit vulnerabilities occasioned by the pandemic.

Beyond traditional banking, Bairstow said that in partnership with SPENN, a financial technology firm to avail a payment method built on blockchain technology, they have over 300,000 regular users as well as about 8000 merchants.

The bank’s assets closed at Rwf417 billion with shareholders’ funds of Rwf54 billion, a 31 per cent growth and 27 per cent growth, respectively.