Bank of Kigali Plc (BK) for the second time was awarded as Best Bank in Rwanda in the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2022. The award recognizes the efforts of every staff at BK to deliver world-class services to their clients.

Launched in 1992, Euromoney Awards for Excellence is one of the most prestigious and respected awards in global banking, rewarding financial institutions for their achievements, innovations, and performance over the last 12 months.

Diane Karusisi, the Chief Executive Officer of BK welcomed the award saying that it was a recognition of the effort put in by employees at the lender.

 "We are constantly working towards providing top-notch financial services to our customers and winning this award shows that our efforts do not go unnoticed,” she said

In addition, she pointed out that the bank, which is the biggest in the country, will continue to innovate and bring forth fast, easy and efficient channels of transacting.

"Soon we shall be launching a one of a kind new BK mobile app for our customers”, Karusisi added.

BK also migrated to a new core banking system, with the Temenos 24 platform helping the institution to break free from legacy limits and accelerate its digital transformation.

Moreover, the bank described the move as all part of an ambitious plan to double its roster of retail and small and medium-sized enterprise clients to more than one million by the end of this year.

Last year the Bank of Kigali deposits and loan book grew serving 424,000 retail customers and 36,700 corporate clients.

In addition, the bank reported a net profit 35 percent year-on-year increase in net profit to RF5.8 billion ($5.7 million) in 2021, driven by a 20.8 percent rise in interest income and double-digit growth across all key performance metrics.

Moreover, Bk also recorded a 41.4 percent growth in non-interest income to Rwf 4.2 billion, as trade and economic growth picked up.

BK’s New Year started well too, where pre-tax profit jumped to 44.4 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2022, with assets up 22.4 percent and deposits rising to 21.7 percent.

While the total assets stood at Rwf1.7 trillion at the end of last year, up 22.3 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The bank also revealed that during the awards period, it got busy on the digital front where it launched a revamped and upgraded online platform including enhanced security features that cater to diaspora clients.