QIIB is upbeat about its profit and revenue growth for 2019 and beyond, on the back of opportunities arising from the massive infrastructure development projects and fast GDP growth. The bank is focusing to tap these huge invest opportunities the government is investing heavily as part of its long term strategy and in the run-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“2018 was a good year for us. We reported 6 percent growth in our profit, and we expect to maintain the same level of growth momentum for 2019,” Jamal Abdullah Al Jamal, QIIB’s Deputy CEO, told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the Bank’s Extraordinary General Assembly Meeting, yesterday.
Al Jamal added: “QIIB has been working on solid growth strategy and confident to achieve its target given the good growth opportunities as government has made significant budgetary allocations for infrastructure development and other social sector in line with the preparations for the 2022 World Cup and Qatar National Vision 2030.”
Asked about the Bank’s focus or priority lending areas, he noted the every sector of the Qatari economy is important and all are witnessing fast growth as the country has accelerated the pace of economic diversification. However, he said that small businesses and corporate sector will be some of the important sectors for the bank’s growth strategy.
“This year also we expect the corporate sector will continue offering more opportunities as several new projects as well as remaining projects related to the Fifa games are being implemented,” he added.
“In addition, the SMEs sector lending, which witnessed 8 percent growth in 2018, will continue to maintain the same level of growth in 2019.”
On the overseas expansion, he said that as of now the Bank has no plans to further expand its operations in other countries, including Morocco, where QIIB with its local partner, run and maintain 20 branches. However, he said that if some good opportunities arise, the Bank will definitely study and go through them.
About deploying innovative technology, Al Jamal said that QIIB has made investments in the sector, and over the next couple of years, it is expected to deploy more technology in its operations aiming to improve efficiency and convenience of the Bank’s valued customers.
Meanwhile, QIIB’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved all the agenda of the meeting, including the recommendation of the Board of Directors to amend Article of Association (76) to allow the ownership of foreign investors with a percentage that does not exceed 49 percent of the Bank’s capital, instead of the previous 25 percent.
The QIIB shareholders also gave their nod to subdivide the share value in accordance with the decision of the Qatar Financial Market Authority, to become QR1 instead of QR10.
Source from: The Peninsula