By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The consumer finance arm of FCMB Group Plc, Credit Direct Finance Company Limited, has assured its customers and stakeholders greater value and innovative financial solutions.
This assurance was given by the chief executive of the firm, Mr Chukwuma Nwanze, while giving an outlook for the second half of 2024.
In the first half of the year, Credit Direct, a leading digital-first non-bank financial services provider, grew its interest income by 105 per cent on a year-on-year basis, helping to raise profitability by 154 per cent.
“Our strong performance in the first half of 2024 is a clear indication of the transformative power of our digital initiatives.
“Our commitment to digital transformation has significantly enhanced our operational efficiency, improved the customer experience, and boosted employee productivity.
“About 95 per cent of our loan book at the end of June 2024 originated through our digital channels, a significant improvement from the 62 per cent reported as of June 2023.
“We introduced four new digital channels and upgraded our existing digital channels, enabling our customers to have 24/7 access to our services,” Mr Nwanze said.
Also speaking on this, the Chief Financial Officer of Credit Direct, Mr Kolawole Omoniyi, said in the period under review, the company witnessed “significant improvements in our cost efficiency and asset quality ratios as our cost-to-income ratio declined by 370 basis points while our NPL ratio had also declined by 221 basis points as of the end of H1 2024.”
“Our return on average equity improved to 65.6 per cent while our return on average assets also improved to 10.5 per cent wrapping up a strong H1 2024 financial period,” he added.
Business Post reports that recently, Credit Direct redeemed its N6.9 billion Series I and II commercial paper issued in November 2023 on the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
Its credit rating was also recently upgraded by Agusto & Co., reflecting its dominant position in the industry and its good and consistent profitability, which compares better than most peers in the consumer lending segment.