Afreximbank Group’s interest income exceeds $1b in 2021
The Afreximbank Group has reported interest income crossing above $1 billion in 2021. The Bank released its consolidated financial statements and that of its wholly owned subsidiaries, for the year ended December 31, 2021.
Its total assets also grew by 13.4 per cent from $19.3 billion as at December 31, 2020 to about $22 billion as at December 31, 2021, primarily due to the 11.5 per cent growth in net loans and advances and a 12.1 per cent increase in cash and cash equivalents to $18.2 billion and $3.1 billion respectively.
The statement shows that with significant growth in guarantees and letters of credit, in line with strategy, total assets and guarantees of the Group rose from $21.7 billion in 2020 to $25 billion as at December 31, 2021.
The statement shows that the Bank achieved a 10.1 per cent increase in its net income from $351.7 million in 2020 to $387.3 million in 2021 largely due to growth in operating income in 2021.
However, the Group’s net income of $375.8 million was slightly lower than the net income reported by the Bank ($387.3 million) mainly because of the pre-establishment expenses incurred by the subsidiaries, it added.
It notes that the Group’s gross income profile improved having recorded $1.13 billion (2020: $1.08 billion) on the back of strong interest income, which crossed $1 billion in 2021. The increase in funded income was driven by healthy interest margins and higher loan volumes. The Group’s shareholders’ funds rose by 17.4 per cent to $4 billion from the prior year position of $3.4 billion, primarily on account of the progress made in the ongoing $6.5 billion General Capital Increase (GCI, $2.6 billion expected as paid-in amount). Overall, the Group maintained a healthy, liquid and robust balance sheet position with respective NPL, liquidity coverage and capital adequacy ratios of 3.4 per cent, 169 per cent and 25 per cent in 2021.
Commenting on the statement, the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Professor Benedict Oramah, said: “2021 was, again, a challenging year with continued economic and business disruptions caused by the pandemic, including continued supply chain disruptions, delayed access to the COVID-19 vaccines and rising global prices.
“Throughout 2021, the Bank remained focused on proactively and aggressively supporting the fight against Covid-19 in Africa by acting as a financial and transaction advisor, guarantor, payment agent and instalment payment facility provider under the $2 billion Advance Procurement Commitment (APC) Guarantee Facility which supported Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust (“AVAT”) to secure 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for the continent with 220 million doses committed in parallel, we maintained strong support for financial institutions, corporates and our member states in other areas,” he said.