African Bank’s customer base grows to 6.1 million as profits also rise
Net profit after tax for the six months ended March was 15% higher at R202m.
Photo: File
Stephen Grootes speaks to Kennedy Bungane, African Bank's CEO, about the bank's impressive financial performance, with a 15% increase in net profit after tax to R202m and a 6% rise in customers to 6.1 million.
Listen to the interview in the audio player below.
African Bank on Monday reported an increase in net profit after tax of R202 million, an increase of 15% for the six months ended 31 March 2025.
The positive results are partly driven by a 6% increase in its customer base to 6.1 million and a 20% rise in net advances to R39.1 billion.
Its Business & Commercial division grew by 49% while Personal Banking increased by a modest 3%.
Interest income increased by 6% to R3.7 billion, positively impacted by the growth in the Business & Commercial loans book.
Non-interest income (net of related card and transaction fee costs) grew by 39% to R909 million as usage of the transactional MyWORLD and credit card accounts by customers increased, further bolstered by various non-transactional revenues which includes fees, commissions and unclaimed balances.
Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, African Bank's CEO Kennedy Bungane says their growth is largely due to moving away from high-risk unsecure lending.
"We understood the glory of high-risk, high return unsecured lending business has got its limitations as it pertains to what happens in tough economic conditions to credit loss ratios..."
- Kennedy Bungane, CEO - African Bank
"We only grew personal banking by 3%, that is the lowest in a long time. We are able to do so, because we now have optionality. We've got the ability to grow as a normal bank in other assets and transactional services revenue."
- Kennedy Bungane, CEO - African Bank
"When we started out on this accelerate strategy, we had only 1.1 million customers. We're reporting in this period over 6.1 million customers, who are showing us a vote of confidence."
- Kennedy Bungane, CEO - African Bank
Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.