Siinqee Bank, which not so long ago evolved to a financial firm from an established microfinance institution, attains massive success in its few months of operations as a bank.
The bank’s loan customer base is now at the summit of all private banks.
Siinqee which secured its banking license in April last year has been in operation for a little under three months in the 2021/22 financial year that closed June 30, 2022.
Nonetheless, in the stated short period, the bank, previously known as Oromia Credit and Saving SC, has registered significant successes.
As Neway Megersa, President of Siinqee cited, one of the key performance indicators of the success was the rise in the number of depositors which now is at over three million in the short timeframe of its evolution.
According to the annual report of Siinqee, the deposit mobilization of the bank has spiked by 68.5 percent to reach almost 10.3 billion birr. Similarly the loan and advances rose to 17.8 billion birr which is a boost of 28.7 percent.
In the reporter year, of the total deposit, the demand deposit shot up by 684.4 percent to reach 1.7 billion birr and similarly the saving deposit reached 8.4 billion birr with a 43.2 percent increment.
He reminded that the number of borrowers stood at over 748 thousand which remains unmatched by any of the private banks, “The rise of our bank’s ability to lend a huge amount of money to individuals as compared to the usual group based loan offer has launched our bank to the summit.”
From the total of over 17 billion birr in loans and advances, the agricultural sector has taken almost half that is unusual for the banking sector and was followed by trade which took over 29 percent.
During the reported financial year, the bank earned 2.78 billion birr which showed a 20 percent increase, while the interest income from loan and financing took the lion’s share to take 86 percent.
Similarly as a newly formed bank, the financial institution’s expense has surged by over 37 percent to stand at 2.4 billion birr.
Regarding asset, the bank has expanded to 20.5 billion birr with 28 percent growth while the paid up capital stood at 7.45 billion birr which was a 6.3 percent increase in the three month period of its evolution.
In the reported period, the bank has secured 371.6 million birr profit after tax which shows a reduction of 34 percent.
“The decline in profit was witnessed due to the huge investment the bank deployed to installing core banking technologies, undertaking rebranding, promotion and renovation, as well as restructuring the bank with salary increase and rise in total employment resulting in a total expense of 2.4 billion birr, which rose up by 37 percent,” the annual report explained.
Citing the annual report, Neway said that as a critical step for successful transition, reforming the bank’s institutional structure, organizing departments in a working algorithm, hiring professionals with banking experience, providing large scale staff trainings, expanding branches, installing networking technologies as well as rebranding the bank were the understandings that consumed much of the focus and commitment.
He added that the bank has finalized the testing and implementation process of Oracle FLEXCUBE version 14.5, a modern core banking system well known in the global banking industry.
Renamed Siinqee Bank after the cultural institution of Oromo women the bank was formed with a subscribed capital of 15 billion birr and seven billion birr in the fourth quarter of last financial year.
As of June 30 Siinqee has 404 branches, of that, 134 provide banking service while the rest are microfinance service outlets.