Equity Group net earnings for the first half of the year rose 36 per cent to Sh24.4 billion on high loan intake.
This was a Sh6.5 billion improvement compared to the Sh17.9 billion reported in the same period last year.
Equity Group chief executive officer James Mwangi attributed the profit growth to interest income which surged 29 per cent from Sh42.8 billion to Sh55 billion owing to increased loan uptake by customers.
The bank loan book during the period grew 29 per cent to Ksh 650.6 billion up from Sh504.8 billion.
“The loan growth was targeted to supporting our clients to recover and rebuild after the Covid-19 business disruptions while allowing re-purposing and retooling for resilience and agility to take advantage of emerging opportunities and green shoots in the real economy, “said Mwangi.
Year on year personal internet transactions grew by 1,081 per cent from 600,000 to 7.5 million transactions with the value of the transactions growing by 366 per cent from Sh39.5 billion to Sh184 billion.
Consumer to business retail commerce digital transactions on Pay with Equity retail merchants grew by 382 per cent from 7.8 million to 37.5 million transactions whose value grew by 314 per cent from Sh42.2 billion to Sh174.8 billion.
The lender's business-to-consumer payments transactions through the internet Equity cash and liquidity management solution EazzyBiz grew by 51 per cent during the first half of the year from 2.2 million transactions to 3.3 million transactions.
Value grew by 52 per cent from Sh637 billion to Sh966.7 billion.
The value of mobile transactions on Equitel grew by 62 per cent from Sh844 billion to Sh1.366 trillion while Equity mobile app value of transactions grew 97 per cent to Sh552.9 billion up from Sh280.1 billion.
