Ivorian banker Jean Kacou Diagou’s NSIA Banque Cote d’Ivoire expects balance sheet to exceed $3 billion in four years

NSIA Banque Cote d’Ivoire, the Ivorian banking subsidiary of NSIA Group, an African insurance and banking conglomerate led by leading businessman Jean Kacou Diagou, has revealed that its total balance sheet will grow by 11 percent over four years.

The Cote d’Ivoire-based group made the disclosure at a meeting between management and key players in the country’s financial services industry on Thurs., July 7.

In line with the bank’s asset growth projection of 11 percent in the next four years, management expects NSIA Banque Cote d’Ivoire’s balance sheet value to exceed CFA1.96 trillion ($3 billion) by 2026.

The Diagou-led firm’s banking unit explained that with a total balance sheet of CFA1.83 trillion ($2.83 billion) at the end of 2022, the banking subsidiary’s financial position could exceed CFA1.96 trillion ($3 billion) by 2026.

According to Leonce Yace, general manager of NSIA Banque Cote d’Ivoire, with a trade balance of CFA1.716 trillion ($2.65 billion), the bank’s net banking income is expected to increase to CFA267 billion ($413.4 million) by 2026, from CFA76 billion ($117.7 million) presently.

The announcement comes nearly three months after NSIA Banque Cote d’Ivoire reported a net profit of CFA3.6 billion ($6 million) at the end of the first three months of 2022, up 11 percent from the same period in 2021.

Aside from the consistency of net banking income, the exceptional performance was fueled by the management’s cost-cutting strategies implemented during the period.

The cost-cutting strategies are directly related to the three-percent reduction in personnel costs, overheads, and depreciation charges that reached CFA11.9 billion ($18.3 million) at the end of March 2022, compared to CFA12.3 billion ($19 million) during the same period in 2021.

Diagou, who founded NSIA Group in 1995, has been instrumental in the group’s rapid expansion as a key player in the financial services industry, with active operations in 12 countries in West and Central Africa.

The group also owns and operates BIAO, the third-largest bank in Cote d’Ivoire, which it purchased in 2006 and recently rebranded NSIA Bank Cote d’Ivoire.

Diagou and his family own 61 percent of the business.