The net income of Bank of Kigali increased by 9.3 per cent for the half-year period ending June tis year.

For the period under review, the bank’s net income stood at Rwf10.8 billion up from Rwf9.8 billion.

Bank of Kigali attributed the growth to increased loan book and efficiency in managing the operational costs in an industry.

The bank also reduced its cost to income ratio from 47.9 per cent to 45 per cent.

“Although our profits didn’t increase significantly, we did well in minimising our costs as well as increased returns on our loan book,” said Lawson Naibo, chief operating officer of Bank of Kigali.

The bank’s net loans to clients for the second quarter of this year stood at Rwf281 billion compared with Rwf212.7 billion over the same period last year.

The bank said it expects to make more profits because of the anticipated growth in credit to the private sector.

Banks said although the interest rates are high in Rwanda compared with other countries in the region, there is stability in the industry.

However, the bank’s total assets growth slightly reduced for the second quarter of this year by 11.8 per cent compared with 14.3 per cent growth that was recorded over the same period last year.

The bank also witnessed an increase in credit to corporate clients. The bank said 79 per cent of the total loans went to the corporate clients compared with 76 per cent that was registered over the same period last year.

Corporate deposits also increased by 57 per cent during the second quarter of this year compared with 55 per cent last year.

However, the bank noted that unstable franc may affect its business.

“Foreign exchange markets, which are more often disturbed by dollar fluctuations may discourage our customers from borrowing as they were expected,” added Mr Naibo.

Besides Bank of Kigali results, the regulator National Bank of Rwanda said last year, the banking sector’s balance sheets remained healthy as total assets increased by 19.3 per cent at the end of December last year, amounting to Rwf1.80 trillion from Rwf1.51 trillion realised in December 2013.

Last year, total assets of the banking sector were dominated by loans to the private sector accounting for 56.1 per cent and investments in financial securities.