By Shania Lazarus

Copyright namibian

Firstrand Namibia Group, which owns First National Bank (FNB) Namibia, paid its chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) N$17.5 million for the year ended on 30 June.

Annual financial results released last week show that CEO Conrad Dempsey’s total remuneration package, including long-term incentives, stood at N$13.4 million, while CFO Lizette Smit got N$4.1 million.

Both executives saw a decline in their total remuneration, but an increase in their guaranteed pay for the financial year ending June 2025 when compared to the previous year.

The drop in overall pay comes mainly as a result of once-off retention bonuses awarded in 2024 not being repeated this year – of N$3.3 million for Dempsey and N$1.81 million for Smit.

Dempsey’s base salary rose by 6.2% to N$4.17 million, while his short-term incentive increased by 4.7% to N$3.42 million.

Smit earned a base salary of N$2.3 million which was an increase of 5.9% from the prior year, and her short-term incentive more than doubled to N$1.66 million.

Long-term incentives, which reward sustained performance over multiple years, also grew for both executives.

The CEO received N$$5.85 million, up by 22% , while the CFO was granted N$$410 000 in long-term incentives for the first time.

According to the report, FirstRand spent N$1.6 billion on salaries for its 2 361 employees after a total revenue of N$5.5 billion.

The majority of this revenue (N$3.3 billion) came from net interest income, while N$2.7 billion came from non-interest income.

The company recorded a profit after tax of N$1.9 billion – an increase from N$1.7 billion recorded last year.

The group said the results were driven by customer growth, higher transaction volumes, and effective cost containment despite rising impairments.

“Behind every result we deliver is the judgement, discipline, and ingenuity of our people.We made deliberate choices to attract, retain, and grow talent for where the business is going,” Dempsey says.

Total assets at the end of the 12 months stood at N$56.2 billion.

The group recorded a N$4-billion decline in assets.

On expenses, the group achieved a cost-to-income ratio of 46.2 % remaining within the best practices of healthy range.

“Operating expenses were tightly managed, and increased by 5.5% to N$2.8 billion,” the commentary reads.

The bank says it will continue to keep cost management top of mind as inflation remains sticky.

Smit says return on equity improved to 28.6%, while the net asset value climbed to N$2.67 per share, up from N$2.3.

Therefore the bank is giving shareholders a dividend of 476.34 cents per share ,which is a significant 34.7% year-on-year increase.

“We are well positioned to respond to emerging risks and leverage strategic opportunities,” Smit says.

The group reported a 23.9% increase in impairment charges, rising to N$527 million for the year.

The credit loss ratio rose to 1.3%, up from 1.1% in 2024.

FirstRand group controls close to a third of banking operations in the country, holding 33.1% (N$45.6 billion) of Namibia’s deposit market of N$137 billion.

Its closest competition is Capricorn Group Limited, the owners of Bank Windhoek, which will be releasing its results later this week.