Nampost clients’ savings now at N$5 billion

DEPOSITS of NamPost customers have increased in 2018, with about N$4,9 billion now held by the state-owned savings bank, recently released financial statements show.

While the increase in savings is a positive, the financial statements also show that the group still pose a short-term liquidity risk at the end of the 2018 financial year.

The risk which arises when short-term payables outweigh the receivables show that, at the end of 2018, the group’s deposits’ current liability stood at about N$4,2 billion against current financial assets of N$2,4 billion, thereby posing a short-term liquidity risk of about N$1,7 billion.

NamPost’s year-end is in September. However, the financials were only made public this week, less than two months ahead of the 2019 year-end next month.

The financials were, however, signed off in December last year.

NamPost was established to conduct postal services, but the company expanded to financial services to include savings, payments and loan facilities through its subsidiaries, NamPost Savings Bank (NPSB) and NamPost Financial Brokers (Postfin).

According to the executive summary issued by NamPost, most of their revenue for the 2018 financial year came from their financial services segment, which accounts for 69% of their profits.

The group reflected revenue of N$1,1 billion, investment income of N$11 million, and received about N$6 million from their equity investments.

The statements show that the group made an after-tax profit of N$39,2 million, a 75% increase from the previous year’s profit of N$22 million, with N$27 million (69%) coming from financial services.

Total assets in 2018 stood at about N$5,4 billion, with about N$2 billion invested in bonds, N$846 million in listed shares, and N$1,9 billion on call accounts, fixed-term deposits and money instruments.

Loans and advances stood at N$303 million after impairment, an increase from N$280 million recorded last year.

While the group has a N$4,9 billion savings portfolio, interest expense for the year on the savings stood only at N$273 million, about 5% of the money invested with them. Interest received by the group was N$420 million.

The Namibian reported last year that NPSB had about 300 000 individual customers, with about 30% deposits from households, and 70% spread among state-owned entities and asset managers.

NamPost is also a 50% owner of SmartSwitch Namibia Limited, which earned revenue of about N$28 million.

The directors of NamPost have declared a dividend of N$5 million, about 12% of profit made, and 31% of total comprehensive income.

The full financial statements are available on the company’s website.

Email: lazarus@namibian

Twitter: @Lasarus_A