Kenya Commercial Bank Rwanda recorded Rwf199.9m in half-year profits, which represented a major turnaround considering it suffered a Rwf61.2m loss over the same period last year.

However, the bank’s non-performing loans increased from Rwf2.4b to Rwf4.2b over the same period.

Kenya Commercial Bank Rwanda is a subsidiary of the Kenya Commercial Bank Group. The group’s non-performing loans rose to $213.7m from $168.4m year-on-year, KCB Bank Group said in statement on Saturday.

However, it noted that contribution from its operations in Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Burundi grew 80 per cent to $10m as at June, this year, compared to $5.6m in June last year.

The Rwanda Stock Exchange and Nairobi Stock Exchange listed bank last traded on the local bourse in July, selling 1,500 shares in five deals. This also led to a rise in its share price, up from Rwf169 to Rwf175. No trade has been recorded since then. 

The bank’s stock price was last quoted at Ksh43 (Rwf320) on Thursday last week, Rwf30 less than double the price at the Nairobi bourse.

"Most people are not aware that the bank is listed here as the whole KCB Group, which makes billions in profits and is one of the top three banks in Kenya,” Celestin Rwabukumba, said the co-ordinator of the Rwanda Stock Exchange, citing low investor awareness as one of the reasons the KCB Rwanda the counter is not very active.