First National Bank of Botswana (FNBB), the most innovative and biggest bank on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), said Friday that it will press ahead with its “bricks to clicks” strategy as it gears up for universal financial inclusion and growing market share.
The company announced at its half year’s financial results to December 31, 2010 briefing that some of the innovative products that were rolled-out at the end of last year were aimed at addressing the thorny issues concerning the unbanked and the under bank part of the society.
“The most interesting product still remains Chesa ÔÇöthe E Wallet ÔÇô product that allows FNBB customers to send money to anyone, including the under banked and the unbaked. The receivers do not need to have an account with FNB,” FNBB Chief Executive Officer, Lorato Boakgomo-Ntakwana, said.
The E-Wallet that was introduced late last year came after Business debit Card, Bank your change and cell phone banking that are largely supported by the Automated Teller Machines (ATM), which are growing at a rate of 40 percent per annum.
At present it has 111 ATMs sprawled across the country.
The companies, for the six months period, were paired one percent to P 559.3 million against P 563.2 million in the previous comparable period. However, profits were up 27 percent to P 260 million as was earning per share that firmed 27 percent to 10.23 thebe per share.
Advances stood at P 6.5 billion, which were largely attributed to the mortgage division with a loan book of P 2.3 billion. The deposits were sluggish at P 9 .9 billion from P 10.5 billon the same period last year.
“We still remain positive despite the risks that are still there in the global economy,” FNBB’s Finance Manager, Steven Bogatsu, said.
FNBB is currently working on plans that are aimed at increasing its markets share from 16 percent to at least 30 percent in an attempt to be a strong challenger to Barclays Bank of Botswana.
Barclays is the leading bank in terms of markets share.
The top four banks, Barclays, FNBB, Standard Chartered Bank of Botswana and Stanbic all control 94 percent of the market while BancABC, Capital Bank and Bank of Baroda share the remaining spoils among themselves.
Part of the plans for FNBB is to play a much active role in the public sector– including GPO guarantees– to try to help government to climb the e-government ladder and at the same time use its strong connections with Rand Merchant Bank of South Africa to help with debt structuring in Botswana.
Government announced a raft of measures, aimed at borrowing locally, that will entail issuing some debt instruments in the form of bonds and treasury bills.
FNBB declared 5 thebe dividend that will be paid by March 25 to shareholders registered on or before March 11 this year and its assets were solid at P 12.2 billion.
It closed the week unchanged on Friday at 275 thebe per share.
