Wegagen Bank’s profits skyrocket

The gross profit of Wegagen Bank has climbed by fifty percent in the past fiscal year.
The statement that the bank sent to Capital indicated that in the 2017/18 fiscal year the bank earned 1.05 billion birr which is an increase of 49 percent compared with the 2016/17 financial year.
The Bank’s profit has consistently risen over the past three years.
“The significant increase in profits is largely because total income increased. It amounted to 2.34 billion birr which is a 39.6 percent increase from the previous fiscal year,” the statement elaborated.
“This development puts Wegagen in the category of one of the few private Banks that managed to gross a billion birr profit,” it added.
Araya Gebre-egziabher, president of the Bank, remarked that the Bank registered a commendable growth in all aspects of operation highlighting key achievements of the Bank in the fiscal year.
He indicated that the Bank’s paid up capital grew 11 percent to reach 2.3 billion birr in 2017/18 from 2.1 billion at the end of 2016/17 fiscal year.
The total capital including reserves has also increased by 19 percent to reach 3.8 billion birr, while the total assets rose to 27.3 billion birr with a 33 percent increase.
Similarly, the total deposits mobilized increased by 31 percent to reach 20.5 billion birr in 2017/18 from 15.6 billion birr in 2016/17.
For the year the Wegagen’s total loans and advances facilitated for customers grew to over 15.1 billion birr from 10.2 billion in 2016/17 twhich is almost a 50 percent growth rate. The Bank opened 64 new branches across the country expanding its network of branches to 277.
Araya also indicated that the Bank has carried out several projects aimed at modernizing its infrastructure in a bid to provide better services to its customers. The most notable of such projects carried out in the 2017/18 was the replacement of its core banking system with the Oracle Flex Cube which has significantly transformed its operational performance and customer service delivery to the highest level of efficiency.
It is also undertaking a project to build a new state of the art data center in its newly inaugurated Headquarter Building on Ras Mekonnen Street. Wegagen’s new IT infrastructure has enabled it to provide innovative and value adding financial services, including the newly introduced air travel payment services in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines.
The bank has inaugurated one of the icon 33 storey buildings that consumed more than 800 million birr for the capital as its headquarter.