The banking arm of BEIGE, which controls about 30 per cent market share, in the savings and loans sector posted GH¢19 million in profit before tax, a jump of 77 per cent over the earnings in 2015.

BEIGE Capital Savings and Loans (BCSL) recorded an interest income of GHc301 million, for the year ended December 2016, compared to the GHc172 million recorded for the same period last year, an increase of 75 per cent.

The Chief Executive Officer of BEIGE, Mr Mike Nyinaku said the banking arm of the group, BEIGE Capital, grew its assets by 46 per cent, from GH¢818 million in 2015 to about GH¢1.2 billion at the close of last year, a significant result in the profile of savings and loans companies.

The earnings were driven by continuous lending to the SME sector and the creation of quality and liquid risk assets.

BCSL maintained non-performing loans (NPLs) under seven per cent of its total loan book of more than GH¢500 million, which is well below the industry average of 17.7 per cent.

BCSL’s total operating costs for the period amounted to GHc66 million and personnel cost accounted for about 19 per cent of this.

Mr Nyinaku explained that the stellar performance in 2016 had buoyed the company’s optimism even more for the ensuing year.

Other core operating costs, including ICT, energy and equipment maintenance also made up about 15 per cent of operating expense for the period.

The growth in the business also affected its human resources and processes, with the banking arm alone employing over 2,000 people, while the group made significant investments in preparation of becoming a universal bank, including the deployment of modern banking software, the T24.

“We today sit at a position that makes us a stronger institution than we ever had been since our inception, thanks to our consistent approach to marketing and business development,” the Group CEO said.

Mr Nyinaku explained that the company’s success in managing NPLs was due to its unique approach to credit delivery as well as lessons learnt from the challenges encountered in previous years. “We have quite some capacity with the informal sector and also are very careful about the kind of risk we take because we are not a very big bank.”

As of today, BEIGE has evolved from being a single savings and loans company into a multi-layered financial services provider with a Banking, Pensions, Life Insurance, Health Insurance and Asset Management.