BEIGE, the financial services provider, has returned an impressive performance in its portfolio of businesses last year, meeting all of its major targets and expectations.

Besides multiple acquisitions to complement its technical and resource capacity, BEIGE also invested in processes and human capital to strengthen its preparedness for the next phase of the institution’s evolution and operations – offering solutions in five broad financial service areas.

Performance of the banking arm

The banking arm of BEIGE which controls about 30per cent market share out of the 37 savings and loans companies in the country, also posted GH¢19 million in profit before tax, a 77 per cent increase over the figure recorded the previous year.

BEIGE Capital Savings and Loans (BCSL) recorded an interest income of GHc301m, for the year ended December 2016, compared to the GHc172m recorded for the same period last year. This shows an increase of 75%. This was driven by continuous lending in the SME segment as well as continued emphasis on the creation of quality and liquid risk assets. BCSL maintained non-performing loans (NPLs) under 7% of its total loans book of more than GH¢500 million, which is well below the industry average of 17.7 per cent among universal banks.

BCSL’s total operating costs for the period amounted to GHc66mand personnel cost accounted for about 19% of this. Other core operating costs, including ICT, energy and equipment maintenance also made up about 15% of operating expense for the period.

The Chief Executive Officer of BEIGE, Mr Mike Nyinaku, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic, 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 outturn in the profile of savings and loans companies.

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

Processes

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 a 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.”

BEIGE evolution

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.

“Our evolution process which began late last year is still on-going and we hope to be fully done with it by end of this year. The process looks lengthy but it can only be so as there are a lot of stakeholders – staff, clients and others – all who must all be prodded along to understand what we are doing so they come along with us. “In the end, BEIGE would be that one big firm that provides a variety of financial services solutions to the general public,” the chief executive said.