Commercial bank of Rwanda (BCR) registered Rwf5.9b profits before tax last year, which was an increase of 36 per cent compared to the previous year.The bank’s loan book also improved, with non-performing loans reducing to 2.7 per cent from 5.5 per cent in 2011.“BCR has enjoyed another outstanding year despite the highly competitive Rwandan banking industry. Our loan portfolio grew from Rwf37.6b to Rwf52.5b, whereas our profit after tax was Rwf4.2b compared to Rwf2.9b in 2011,” Sanjeev Anand, the managing director, said.“We have again set ourselves ambitious targets for next year… we are looking at a loan portfolio growth of 20 to 25 per cent and savings deposit growth of 33 per cent. In order to achieve this, we will introduce a number of new products and initiatives onto the market this year.”The bank was recognised by the Rwanda Revenue Authority as the first bank to introduce e-tax countrywide, a base through which its 31,000 clientele pay their taxes electronically. It also intends to launch a visa project that will enable customers access debit, credit and savings facilities via mobile phones.“We provide services to a wide range of business industries, including coffee, tea, minerals, power, telecoms, hotels and NGO sectors,” Anand said.“We are also focused on improving efficiency through initiatives on cost reduction, revenue enhancement and productivity improvement.”Last year in July, ACTIS, the major shareholder, disposed of its 80 per cent interest in BCR to I&M Banking Group.The transaction resulted into I&M becoming the bank’s majority shareholder with 55 per cent. DEG and Proparco have a 12.5 per cent stake, while the government and individual shareholders have 19.8 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.
