NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s KCB Group said on Wednesday its pretax profit for the first quarter of this year slipped to 13.85 billion shillings ($101.47 million) from 14.03 billion shillings in the same period in 2022, as provisions for bad debt rose.
The bank, which also operates in Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Burundi, said loan-loss provisions rose to 4.12 billion shillings from 2.08 billion shillings.
“Provisions rose by 99%, driven by increased credit risk and the impact of forex devaluation in Kenya, a prudent step on the backdrop of a challenging operating environment which has greatly impacted asset quality,” KCB said in a statement.
Kenya’s shilling has hit repeated all-time lows since late 2021. It is down about 10.6% against the dollar so far this year.
The bank said net interest income rose to 22.06 billion shillings from 19.74 billion shillings in the first quarter of 2022.
It said total assets jumped 40% to 1.63 trillion shillings, making it the largest bank in eastern Africa.
($1 = 136.5000 Kenyan shillings)
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning)
