Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, everyone, and welcome and thank you for joining the call to review our half year 2024 unaudited results. I trust everyone has had a chance to review our earnings release documents. They are available on the Investor Relations section of the ecobank.com website and include the earnings presentation that we will be referring to during the call. This call is being recorded. Your lines will be muted for the duration of the call. I will first turn the call to our Group CEO, Jeremy Awori, for some opening remarks, before Ayo Adepoju, our CFO, and Chinedu Ikwudinma, our CRO, discusses our results. Now before I do that, let me remind you that we may make forward-looking statements that are based on our best view of the world and our businesses as we see them today. For more information on the forward-looking statements, please refer to the disclaimer at the back of the slide deck. So with that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to you, Jeremy. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Ato, and good morning, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining this first half results call for ETI. We're just having a slight lag with regards to the slides coming up, but I will continue while they pull them up for a second. The first point -- the first area that I wanted to focus in on was just really regarding the macroeconomic landscape, but I'll just spend a few minutes on that, and then I will come to the first half results themselves. We've seen a number of developments across our markets. You are familiar with those in terms of just GDP growth across the countries, inflation rates, which we've seen, have been on the rise and a challenge for a number of markets, including some of the larger economies. And we've seen also some changes in the monetary policy rates to try and contain inflation and those price rises. Obviously, as a result of the broader global macro environment and interest rates, we've seen exchange rates under pressure across the continent, with fairly significant depreciations in a number of countries. In particular, we've seen them, obviously, in Nigeria, Ghana, among others. And then there have been some material changes around capital requirements, CRR calculations in Ghana that also having impact across the banking industry. But that matter I will leave as it's available to you for you to be able to read at your time. And instead, I will move us forward to discuss the overview of our results. So on July 30, we released our unaudited results for the first half of 2024. The company achieved a strong set of results across multiple aspects of our business and regions. We generated a record return on tangible equity of 34.7%, demonstrating that our strategic focus and execution of our agenda is delivering results. And we're also seeing the benefits of our diversified business model. Regional ROEs were also strong with CESA at 37.4%; AWA, which is Anglophone West Africa, at 34.7%; UEMOA at 26.7%, respectively. However, Nigeria's 3.8% reflects structural and external challenges we face in the business. Nevertheless, management remains committed to aggressively pursuing ongoing turnaround efforts, and we will discuss these in more details throughout this presentation. So our revenues of $994 million were resilient, increasing by 2%, in real terms were 21% at constant currency, with our Commercial and Consumer businesses increasing by 23% and 25%, respectively, in line with the significant growth potential in both these businesses, as we've discussed previously in our GTR, or Growth, Transformation and Returns strategy. We anticipate robust growth in these businesses as we implement measures to expand scale and diversify their revenues. We continue to also invest, grow and diversify our Corporate & Investment Banking business, which also grew 14% in constant currency terms. We are focused on managing costs throughout our franchise with a particular focus on structural cost efficiencies and have achieved strong results despite a high inflation environment. Because of this, we achieved a record cost-income ratio of 53.6% and our profit before tax was USD 324 million, a 5% or 23% increase in constant currency. The profits attributable to ETI shareholders also increased 27% in constant currency to $158 million, albeit a marginal decrease of 2% in nominal terms due to the currency translation effect. Our capital adequacy ratio at 14.3% was above the regulatory minimum requirements. Now turning to the macroeconomic landscape. We achieved these results in a challenging and fast-changing operating environment. GDP growth across our regions varied, with Nigeria's economic growth expected to rise modestly while Ghana's is forecast to decline slightly. Growth in Francophone, West Africa and Central Africa has been modest and is expected to continue growing. Inflation continues to rise leading to central banks -- leading central banks to maintain a tightening monetary policy stance. Over the period, the company has been disproportionately affected by the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against our subsidiaries' local currencies, adversely affecting our equity base. Management is actively implementing measures, including rightsizing risk-weighted assets and collaborating with subsidiaries to achieve returns above the risk-adjusted cost of equity. However, the economic landscape still remains challenging. As risk managers, we continue using all of the available tools to effectively manage the company through good and bad times, and our key focus is on ensuring that we always serve our customers well, that we grow our business and generate sustainable returns. Just moving the slide forward for a second. No, back one -- back one. Yes. Just turning to Nigeria. And before providing an update on our growth transformation and returns agenda, I'd like to just sort of highlight recent developments in our Nigerian business. As many of you are aware, we announced that the significant devaluation of the naira in the last 1 year has resulted in Ecobank Nigeria's capital adequacy ratio falling below 10% as at June 30, 2024, leading to a breach of the bank's capital adequacy covenant in its $300 million senior notes program due in 2026. I want to highlight that this breach is a covenant breach only and not an indication of the bank's inability to make good on its interest payments, the last of which was made on the 16th of August, just last week. The bank has submitted and obtained the Central Bank of Nigeria's approval and support for its capital remediation plan to address its capital adequacy. In addition, we are discussing with the trustee and bondholders of Ecobank Nigeria's $300 million senior note program to remedy the covenant breach and give us reasonable time to address capital shortfalls. We are confident that we will satisfactorily conclude these discussions, and we'll provide further updates to the market in due course. Our commitment to addressing these challenges is unwavering, and we will provide updates as required. Ecobank's Nigeria Board has taken proactive measures to bolster the lenders' capital on top of the need to inject NGN 7 billion or about USD 5 million to meet the new CBN minimum stated capital requirements for a national bank. We have until March 2026 to meet this requirement. The Board has approved raising about $200 million in additional Tier 1 capital. The capital raising process has commenced. And whilst it will likely take 6 months or more given the nature of such raises, we are confident in this course of action. All of these actions show our continued focus and support to our Nigeria affiliate. And it is important, however, to recognize that over time, the growth of our other regions has been faster, resulting in a decrease in the size of the Nigerian business relative in the group. For instance, in 2018, Nigeria represented 33% of total equity and 18% of profits before tax of the group compared to 8% and 1%, respectively, in 2023. This context is important in the broader ETI strategy and performance analysis. We do remain committed to turning around the business since it's a crucial element of our diversification strategy and is a country with material future opportunities. Just to share a few reasons why Nigeria is a market with a lot of potential and we remain interested in, it captures today about 9 billion of the banking revenue pools in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is about 25% of those pools. There's a relatively low penetration in total deposits and loans when you compare to GDP. So retail lending is only circa 1% of GDP, which, if you compare against South Africa at 36% and 13% in Kenya, shows that there are future opportunities there. And similar numbers exist for SME lending. The domestic payment opportunity is currently approximately 60 billion worth of payments, U.S. dollars that is, every month. And we estimate this to grow almost tenfold to almost $7 billion in the next 5 to 7 years. 21% of Africa's formal remittances worth $20 billion are in Nigeria, which is the second largest market in Africa outside of Egypt. And there's a huge informal payments market yet to be tapped. 9% of the continent's trade transactions are also in Nigeria. And we also cannot forget that our own Ecobank affiliates deal with Nigeria, with its various customers transacting and doing businesses in the countries in which we operate. So as a result of these findings, we believe we must evolve and enhance our operating model at Ecobank Nigeria by having 2 distinct focuses: one, on building out our new businesses in our areas of focus, which include payments, remittances, trade finance and growing our Consumer and Commercial businesses. This will diversify our business revenues and balance sheet. We are also building out new propositions and addressing customer pain points as we improve our customer experience. We are digitally led and have room to automate manual processes much more as we do so. Secondly and separately, we have a dedicated team that is going to focus on addressing the legacy bank and structural issues from the past and drive the tough actions around efficiency and productivity. Our strategy focuses on capital-light transactions, moving away from sector concentrations such as oil and gas and foreign currency exposure. And this will help build a solid new business with a lower cost to serve. We will leverage our licenses -- our banking license in new ways to ensure FinTechs can use our APIs for their solutions, creating a win-win scenario and further revenue opportunities for both parties. The liberalization of the currency by the CBN has enhanced foreign currency inflows into the economy and facilitated outbound flows, and we've observed these benefits through increased transaction volumes on the Ecobank mobile app and our rapid transfer real-time Pan-African payment system. This is the reason why we are planning to set up a dedicated remittance business for both inflows and outflows in Nigeria. We also have a strategy around attracting and providing banking solutions for the affluent market segment, optimizing the utilization of our branch network and, most importantly, digital capabilities. We have invested and improved our digital customer onboarding process and enhanced our deposit gathering campaigns. We are optimistic that our strategy on payments and trade will yield positive results in Nigeria, especially when tapping into the unbanked commercial businesses in need for transactional banking services. Additionally, our consumer bank business will focus on selective lending to salaried employees and specific target segments, whilst also building a wealth management premium business. Finally, we aim at optimizing productivity by moving to a leaner structure, including automation of our manual processes. We recognized for Nigeria it will not be a quick easy fix, and have identified specific growth opportunities that should allow the business to gradually build capital through retained earnings for at least the next 5 years with productivity, performance and efficiency enhancements. Now we can move to the next slide. Coming back to ETI and the broader growth transformation and returns update, I will now summarize some of the actions we've been taking to drive our Growth, Transformation and Returns strategy since we last updated you at the end of April during our full year 2023 earnings call. Our GTR strategy focuses on putting customers at the center of all that we do, and it is crucial to enhance the experience every time they engage with the company. We recently conducted a thorough review to pinpoint customer pain points and discovered several instances where our customer service was not up to the standards we or our customers expect. And we have a clear agenda of actions to quickly address this. For example, we are transforming our regional customer contact centers into a unified model to handle customer complaints better. We're also focusing on decreasing waiting times by quickly resolving issues and meeting regulatory requirements. We have squads working on critical projects that will make a material impact on our customer experience. In terms of our structure, we have restructured our organization at the group level to prioritize customer and client focus and coverage by merging our Consumer and Commercial Banking businesses under one leadership. We have shifted to a segment-based approach to develop tailored customer solutions and propositions that drive efficiencies across our business. To support this, we have also implemented what I call shared support services that serve the business verticals. We are now building our subject matter expert teams and units such as our physical distribution channels, our digital platforms and features, our data analytics and artificial intelligence, and lastly, our product development expertise. We've launched a number of new products and propositions, for example, our wealth management propositions, our card partnerships and our Diaspora proposition. We've established a new dedicated payments, remittances and banking-as-a-service business, with a strong focus on becoming a leading player in payments and remittances across the continent. We will leverage our current real-time payments capabilities to achieve this goal. This unit will also focus on expanding our FinTech partnerships for clients both locally and those who wish to expand across the continent. In our CIB business, we are diversifying our business and balance sheet. And we have expanded our cash management and CASA deposits to reduce the cost of funds, accelerate cross-selling and distribution capabilities, as well as expand our trade and cross-border solutions. We are also focusing on our Investment Banking and Custody businesses. To drive strong execution and focus, we have established transformation offices at both group and regional levels to coordinate and facilitate the implementation of our most important agenda items. We are transitioning to an organizational model that is simpler and flatter with a target spans and layers structure of 8x8 to align with new strategic and tactical requirements. This shift is intended to promote simplicity, speed of decision-making, enhance execution and accountability and, ultimately, generate sustainable efficiency savings and boost productivity. We are finalizing our participation model in each market to be clear where we will play and how we will win as we recognize a one-size-fits-all model will not work in each of our markets. In some markets, we may be more of a niche player, whilst in the number we will continue to be a full universal bank. This will enable us to take advantage of our identified opportunities and align with our strengths and capabilities. We have developed precise strategies for each affiliate as part of this effort. We've completed 12 significant projects, including upgrades of our leading mobile app, which allows users to pay across border seamlessly. As we have noted in the past, the SME market holds enormous growth potential, so we are doing many exciting things in this space. Within this period, we have piloted our new SME app, enabling small business clients to open accounts online and digitally conduct banking transactions conveniently and faster. This app could be a game changer and will deepen client relationships and drive revenue. To be more efficient and technologically adept, we've migrated some critical databases on to the cloud and are working diligently to migrate more in the coming months. Migrating to the cloud allows us to be more efficient in serving our customers better and at a lower cost. We have also done more work on our risk management and controls agenda. Importantly, we have created a group-wide High-Risk Country Oversight Committee, which is focusing on high risk related countries to ensure the company proactively manages expected and unexpected risks and stays at the forefront of developments. This committee's work is essential to our risk management efforts given the volatilities in the operating environment and the speed at which economic indicators shift. With continued success, we are committed to investing in our brand, which is -- and our A Better Way A Better Africa brand campaign, which we recently launched, will enhance visibility and better connect with our customers. As we do so, we are also building out new branch standards and renovating our branches to enhance their appearance and ambience, creating a welcoming atmosphere for our clients to conduct business with us. In conclusion, we are excited about the progress we are making in better serving our customers, driving revenue growth and enhancing cost and risk management efficiency. And we are committed to providing a secure rewarding environment for our employees to excel and serve our customers effectively. Our primary objective, which we remain steadfast in pursuing, is to generate long-term sustainable returns for our shareholders. With that, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to hand over to Ayo, who will take us through the next segment of the presentation. And I thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Jeremy, and good day, everyone. Please turn to Slide 6 as I take you through the review of the financials. Slide 6 covers the key performance indicators. I'll mention a few notable highlights on the slide. As Jeremy mentioned, we achieved a record return on tangible equity of 34.7%, which is significantly higher than our cost of equity. This is on the back of the strong growth we saw coming from our businesses and regions and also partly influenced by the decline in equity because of foreign currency translation effects. Our earnings per share increased by 27% in constant currency due to the underlying growth in our businesses. The jaws ratio of 7.4% was a record high over the past 7 years, reflecting strong revenue growth and continued efficiency gains in an inflationary period. The cost-to-income ratio continued to trend lower at 53.6%, another record high. Despite the impact of foreign currency translation, our total capital adequacy ratio of 14.3% reasonably above the regulatory threshold of 12.5%. Please turn to the next slide, Slide #7, which speaks to the summary income statement. We encourage the investment community to focus on the constant currency growth rates as they depict the underlying power of the Ecobank franchise. The group's reporting currency, which is U.S. dollar, typically strengthens against the currencies of our subsidiaries. Over the last 12 months to 30 June, the naira has lost almost 50% of its value, the Ghana cedi is 25% and the euro-linked CFA has lost circa 2%. The gross net revenue of $994 million, which increased by 2% or 21% in constant currency are driven mainly by rates, loan repricing in some of our markets, trade loans and services fees and higher deposit margins due to a deliberate focus on low-cost deposit. Reported expenses decreased 5%, but on a constant currency increased 14%, mainly reflecting inflationary pressures. The total impairment charges rose 33%, primarily driven by increase in central impairments reserve overlays. As a result, the cost of risk increased to 207 basis points from 71 basis points a year ago. The interplay of strong growth in revenue led by improving margins, improving cost profile, partly offset by impairment reserves resulted in profit before tax of $324 million, an increase of 23% in constant currency. The attributable profit to ETI shareholders for the period was $158 million, an increase of circa 27% in constant currency. Let me briefly touch on the regional performance. On a constant currency basis, growth in revenues and profits rose across board in all our regions, reflecting the diversification benefits of our franchise. The CESA region is now the leading contributor to pretax profit at 33%, followed by UEMOA at 32%, Anglophone West Africa at 30%, international business at 4%, and Nigeria at 1%. I'll provide more details on each region later in my presentation. Turning to Slide #9 on the net interest income and margins. We had a strong improvement in our net interest margin, growing by 30 basis points from 5.2% a year ago to 5.5% in the first half of 2024, primarily due to our intentional efforts of repricing assets on the back of the higher interest rate environment, reducing non-earning assets and deliberately focusing on low-cost deposits to improve our funding costs. We continue to embark on this strategic effort towards further improving on our net interest margin. Turning to Slide #10, which is on non-interest revenue. This comprised about 44% of our total revenues and shows an increase of about 2% or 20% in constant currency. This growth was driven by higher fees and wholesale payments mainly due to increased volumes on our Omni Plus and Omni Lite payment platforms. We also saw an increase in card related and trade services fees. However, FX liquidity challenges in some of our markets impacted fee growth in client-driven foreign currency sales. Zimbabwe's new currency launch also led to a decline in the revaluation gains. For the first half of 2023, noninterest revenue included a $20 million onetime noncash adjustment on loans that Ecobank Nigeria previously sold to Nigeria's AMCON. Consequently, the underlying growth in noninterest revenue, excluding this one-off, is circa 7% rather than the reported 2%. Moving on to the next slide, 11, on payment. The revenue from our payments was about $126 million for the first half of the year, which account for about 13% of group revenues. The slide shows a breakdown according to different buckets, which include disbursements, card solution, merchant solutions, biller solutions, remittances and alternative channels. We continue to see opportunities in this business. As Jeremy mentioned, there's a huge market revenue potential in this regard and we are positioning our business accordingly. Moving on to Slide #12, which speaks to the volume of digital channels. On this slide, we're presenting the growth in the transaction volumes across our digital and physical channels. Thanks to stronger client relationship and increased activity, we observed double-digit growth in transaction volumes for wholesale payments on our Omni Plus and Omni Lite payment platforms. There was an increase in transaction volumes and access points, our agents, the banking franchise due to an increase in POS deployments and enrollment of billers on the agency banking platform. Although we had a decrease in the volumes for branches and ATMs, these were in line with our strategic directions of leveraging on core digital channels as a means of serving our customers and reducing our cost to serve. Another secondary factor was mainly because of an unexpected surge in activity during the first half of last year, which was largely influenced by the currency and monetary policy changes in Nigeria. Moving on to Slide #13 on expenses. Operating expenses decreased by 5% compared to last year, but increased about 14% in constant currency terms. This increase was due to a mix of inflation-driven cost measures. However, if you look at the cost-to-income ratio, we see that it continues to further improve to 53.6%, the best in over a decade. Also, if you look at the positive jaws of about 7.4%, it's also the best that we've had in over 7 years. If I turn to the next slide on deposits, Slide #14. Due to our efforts to attract more deposits, build stronger relationships with customers and reduce the cost of funding, we have continued to experience significant growth in our customer deposit across our various business lines and regions. Specifically, customer deposits have increased by 13% to $19 billion in constant currency, with most of the growth coming from Commercial and Consumer Banking businesses. The current deposit market is quite competitive with higher interest rates, leading to a shift of funds from noninterest-bearing accounts to savings accounts and other interest yielding investments. This has put pressure on the interest rates we offer on deposits, as evidenced by a slight increase in the average rate paid on funding from 3.0% to 3.1% during the period. If I turn to Slide #15 on loans. Due to currency fluctuations in most of our markets, we have been proactive in managing our loan portfolio and have intentionally been careful in lending, especially in foreign currency. Additionally, we've right-sized our risk-weighted asset over the past year to optimize our capital and risk tolerance, which also affects in our lending volumes. That being said, lending growth was modest at $10.2 billion, gross loans increased by 6% in constant currency terms. Moving on to Slide #16 on the lines of businesses. We're pleased to report strong performance in all of our customer-facing business lines, and net revenue showed robust growth in constant currency, particularly in our Commercial and Consumer Banking divisions. This reflects the growth opportunities we have been focusing on in these areas as part of our GTR strategy. Additionally, the cost-to-income ratio has improved in each business, reflecting efficiency gains. In our CIB division, profit before tax remained steady at $225 million, a revenue growth of circa 14% in constant currency, primarily driven by higher rate, foreign currency and fixed income sales and the underlying strength in the wholesale payments. Our commercial division experienced a 52% increase in profit before tax, supported by 23% revenue growth in constant currency as well. These gains were driven by increased shared loans and services activities, higher fees from wholesale payment and also some revaluation gains on the back of some volatile currency movements in some of our markets. In our consumer division, profit before tax increased by 33% in constant currency on the back of revenue growth of about 25% in constant currency as well. So if I go to Slide #17 to speak to performances for each of our regions. This Slide 17 focuses on Francophone West Africa. In this region, Ecobank is a Tier 1 market leader and the biggest in the region by size, delivering consistent growth and profitability. The annualized ROE for the period was about 27% above its cost of equity. Revenues rose by 9% in constant currency, mainly driven by the net impact of higher rates on margins, card fees, remittances and trade services. PBT increased by 5% to $157 million, with revenue growth moderated by expenses and impairment growth. UEMOA has made significant progress under the GTR strategy. It has improved platform stability to enhance customer experience, introduced bank to wallet services in Niger, Guinea Bissau and Senegal and launched end-to-end Rapid Transfer Services in Cote d'Ivoire. Additionally, we collaborated with the region central banks or banks' interoperability to enhance customer service levels. Turning to Slide #18 on Nigeria. On this particular page, Nigeria's ROE for the period annualized was about 3.8% lower than last year. Net revenues increased in constant currency by 30% on the back of margins improvement. And also we're seeing the PBT, which has declined by 41% in constant currency primarily, as I stated earlier, due to the non-recurrence of the one-off income of $20 million that was booked in the prior year related to the AMCON recovery. As highlighted by Jeremy in his opening remarks, Nigeria remains a turnaround focus market for us. If I go to the next slide on Anglophone West Africa, on Slide #19. Ecobank, as you know, is the #1 bank in this region. We have #1 position in 4 out of the 5 markets, namely in Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Gambia. The annualized ROE was about 35%, an improvement from the 27% recorded last year. Net revenues of $295 million grew by 29% in constant currency. We've seen improvements in margins. We've also seen higher wholesale payment revenues, which has been partly offset by cost of higher regulatory cash reserve requirement from the Bank of Ghana. The profit before tax in this region has also increased by 65% in constant currencies, reflecting positive operating leverage, partly offset by higher credit costs. If I go on to Slide #20, which focuses on Central, Eastern and Southern Africa region, which is now the leading region in terms of contribution to profitability. It represents a growth engine for enhanced profitability and also dividend upstream. The ROE was about 37%, improving from 29% a year ago. Net revenues grew by 21% on the back of margin improvement, trade, payments, cards, foreign currency and fixed income sales. We've also seen this growth also partly offset by some decrease that we saw in our revaluation gains, especially in Zimbabwe on the back of the currency change in that market. CESA has achieved significant victories in its GTR strategy, the 3 additional affiliates having a return on equity higher than their cost of equity during the period. Additionally, we've decreased the number of affiliates with cost-to-income ratio above 70% from 63%. If I move on to Slide #21 on capital. The group maintains capital well above the minimum required ratios. And since we're yet to report the capital ratio estimate for June to our regulator, let's focus on our March ratios. The CET1 ratio, Tier 1 ratio and the total capital adequacy ratio were 9.8%, 10.5% and 14.3%, respectively. We have organically generated capital and right-sized risk-weighted assets, positively impacting our capital adequacy ratio. It's also important to mention that our capital ratio has been adversely affected by the significant currency weaknesses that we saw in the course of this year, mainly the naira devaluation and also the Ghana cedi. However, the strong generation of attributable profit has helped cushion this negative FCTR movement. Finally, turning to Slide #26 on guidance. This slide provides an overview of the company's performance for the first half of the year and also against the 2024 guidance. On the balance sheet, the loan growth is lower than expected in constant currency. This is mainly due to the unexpected impact of Nigerian naira's second devaluation in the first quarter. Additionally, market conditions require stricter credit underwriting standards. Customer deposits also fell short as the higher rate led to a shift of funds from current account to savings and other money market instruments. We're on course to further growing our customer deposits in the second half of the year. The non-performing loans ratio of 6.6% and NPL coverage ratio were within the expected range. Revenue growth aligned with expectations, benefiting from margin improvement and modest client activity in also payment, cards and trade loans and services. Despite inflationary pressures, expenses were well managed, resulting in better-than-expected expense growth. Thanks to efficiency improvements, the cost-to-income ratio of 53.6% was below the expected range. However, the cost of risk of 207 basis points was at an expected range, mainly due to the proactive increase in central impairment reserve overlays in the first half of the year. Note that we have changed our cost of risk guidance from 125 to 150 basis points to less than 200 basis points to capture the major risk in the operating environment. I will now hand over to Chinedu to guide you through the group's asset quality metrics and the related drivers. Thank you. Over to you, Chinedu.

Thank you, Ayo, and thank you all for joining today's call. I'll be discussing our performance indices across credit market risk and liquidity. Please go to Slide 22. I think the key message here is our balance sheet remains liquid. The bank continues to maintain a strong liquidity profile despite a slight decrease in deposit balances, as highlighted by Ayo, from $20 billion to $19 billion, though in constant currency basis this actually increased by 13%. The key driver of this, of course, is the strong devaluation of the Nigerian naira and the Ghanaian cedi in the course of the first 6 months of this year. However, our demand deposits continued to be a major driver of our business origination, accounting for 66.8% of our overall deposits. This highlights a focused attention to this in terms of our business and also highlights the advantage we have in terms of net interest margin opportunities in this regard. If we look at our loan-to-deposit ratio of 53.7%, that again highlights the dry powder we have should we decide to expand our lending. I think as Ayo had highlighted to you, there has been a deliberate risk-weighted asset reduction activity, more from optimizing our activities, reducing the element of longer term lending in foreign currency focused on local currency activity, also focused on trade and other transactions, cross-sell to enhance our income. And you're seeing that feed into our numbers in terms of our returns and profitability. Again, if you look at our noninterest bearing deposits to our total loans at 118%, it's one of the highest levels that we've had. So this again highlights the essence of liquidity of our balance sheet. Next slide, please. If you go the next slide, I think the critical thing to highlight is we've maintained our profile of effective asset quality management of, would I say, a very volatile period. So despite the fact if you go back the past few years, you've had COVID, you've had the inflation impact from the war in Ukraine and other impacts, we've managed to maintain a very healthy asset portfolio. You've seen a slight uptick in terms of NPLs in the first quarter of -- in the first half of 2024. This is mostly because of some deterioration that we saw in Ghana. That was expected because of the challenges in that economy. We still expect to come through in terms of the ratio by the end of the year to be between 6% and 7%. I think the key thing is to highlight that we also achieved this despite a lower level of gross loans. I've already spoken to how we're managing the gross loans figure. The ratio of our reserves to our NPL is over 83%. The intention is to keep this over 80% over the period. In terms of the cost of risk buffer, as Ayo has highlighted, this indicates a proactive engagement to take some central positions in the group. We don't expect to replicate that to the end of the year. So we fairly expect that will come within our guidance of 2% by the end of the year. Next slide. Our portfolio remains well diversified, given the fact that, as I shared with you, we are a major bank, top 3 banks in 15 countries. That's the only institution that has that profile in Africa. The government and its agencies are a natural client for us in our markets. Even at that big proportion, 18%, it's well diversified. You have the retail, manufacturing, 12%, 10% and co. That indicates, again, the depth in our portfolio and highlights the reliance that we have built based on that. By region, the UEMOA region has become the dominant region in terms of our lending activities. If you go back some years, about 6, 7 years ago, this was Nigeria. It highlights the strategic growth that we have forecasted in terms of that region. Also, it highlights the currency stability in that region and also in CEMAC, which has meant that the loans there have not devalued as strongly as you have in Nigeria or in Ghana or AWA. In terms of business segment, the CIB remains the biggest segment by loans and we have the CMB accounting for 16% and the Consumer Bank 12%. And in the terms of the currency mix of our gross loans the CFA accounting for the business in UEMOA and CEMAC at 56%, in our dominant currency, the U.S., they are 27%. You've seen the impact of the currency devaluation in terms of what we've seen in Nigeria and Ghana respectively reducing the impact of those currency in our portfolio. Next slide, please. On the next slide, you are seeing the impact of the -- in terms of the Stage 1 portfolio, there has been the essential character of our portfolio in terms of short-term business. You've seen the reduction and the increase in Stage 1. We see a reduction there. A major impact from that has been from devaluation of the currencies in Nigeria and Ghana. We've also seen also what I've highlighted in terms of managing down our portfolio in those markets and others, trying to focus in terms of cross-sell and also shorter-term transactions. Stage 2, we've seen an uptick. Primarily, this has been from 1 or 2 markets. Nigeria and Ghana, also I highlighted essentially the drivers of that. We do not expect this to continue to increase. We actually expect to see a reduction going to the end of the year. Stage 3 has been largely stable. Again, there has been some impact in terms of the devaluation that we have seen. And that also we -- that's stable portfolio because of the currency mix there. Most of our Stage 3 loans are in foreign currency, and that -- some of them are sort of long term. So that's why you've seen that at that level. But then as I said, we have this all well managed. We don't expect to see a spike in that beyond the impact that we've highlighted. I think that's the main areas I would like to speak to. At this point, I would like to hand back to Jeremy to provide a closing summary before we go into the Q&A. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chinedu. Just really to summarize, we've had a strong first half of 2024. I think that's evidenced by the numbers. We've got a new fresh number of leaders in the team with 5 new GEC members coming in within the first half of the year. The work has been done in terms of the strategy, and our business transformation is well underway and we can see the progress on our strategic agenda. We remain optimistic. While times are challenging, we are investing for future growth, as I think we've shared. At the same time, we've got a particular attention around addressing the areas where our performance is not where we would like, and those turnaround markets are getting our attention, whether they be in Nigeria or in some of the other smaller markets where we feel we can perform better. We also have a very clear agenda around driving efficiency and productivity, whether that be through simplifying our processes, leveraging digitization and then also automating manual processes. So as we do so, we are able to do things in a more efficient way, in a cheaper way while delivering better customer experience. And I think just given the nature of the businesses that we operate, one of the important things is building out a resilient, agile and future relevant business. We're a continent that's on the move, things happen often at short notice, and we've got to have that resiliency and agility to respond to the developments as they occur. And then the last couple of points really are that we continually remain focused on our customers being relevant with banking solutions and financial solutions for them. And hopefully, in the process of doing this, we can generate strong growth and strong sustainable returns for our shareholders. And we have a very specific agenda that is delivering results, and hopefully, we'll continue to deliver further results in the future. So I think with that, with those comments, I'd like to thank you for your attention. I'll hand back to Ato, who will take us through as we open out the Q&A session, which we will hold henceforth. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeremy. [Operator Instructions] I think we seem to have a lag. So I think we'll just go to [ Ngozi ].

So I wanted to ask based on your capital adequacy ratio. At the Holdco level, I wanted to know what threshold -- what are the capital ratio benchmark? So what is the required Tier 1 capital ratio, Tier 2 and capital adequacy ratio vis-a-vis what was reported? Then the second question is in your Nigerian subsidiary. And you did mention that the bank had -- in the Nigerian subsidiary, the bank has fallen below the regulatory benchmark ratio, which is now 10%. I know you also made mention about intentions to raise capital and also breaching a covenant on your debt instrument. I just wanted to know the value of your proposed AT1 capital. I know you said it might take at least 6 months. But when do you think -- what time do you think is more feasible that you'll be in the market and what is going to be the value? And then if you were to raise the amount, how many percent will it add to your capital adequacy ratio for your Nigerian business? And then lastly, on your recapitalization in Nigeria, I just wanted to know your time line or your plans around meeting the recapitalization. Are you coming to market this year or maybe next year?

Okay. If I can take that question. I think the first one on the capital ratio for ETI. If I go to Slide #21, for CET1, we reported 9.8%, the regulatory minimum is 8.5%. For Tier 1, we reported 10.5%, the regulatory minimum is 9.5%. But the total capital adequacy ratio we reported 14.3%. The regulatory minimum is 12.5%. On the second question for Nigeria, like Jeremy mentioned in his opening remarks, we are currently below the 10% regulatory minimum in Nigeria. And we -- of course, we're positively engaging the Central Bank, who has provided support. With respect specifically to the Eurobond that Nigeria issued in 2021, which matures in 2026, one of the covenant was also to maintain capital adequacy ratio that is above the regulatory minimum of 10%. Because of where we are today, so there's a breach in that covenant. It is not directly affecting our ability to raise -- to pay the Eurobond obligation. Just to check, am I audible? Just to reconfirm...

I think maybe you can speak up slightly.

Okay. Okay. So in terms of Nigeria, I was saying that the capital ratio was below 10% as of June 2024, which is below the regulatory minimum. We've been positively engaging the Central Bank, who has been supportive. And also primarily related to the Eurobond, that it issued in 2021, which matures in 2026. So there is a covenant of capital adequacy ratio, which should not fall below the 10% regulatory minimum. So because of where it is today so there is a breach in the covenant. It does not directly translate into an event of default. It is just a breach in covenant. Also, it does not affect the ability of Ecobank Nigeria to repay its obligation. Like we've mentioned, the causative factor was primarily due to the material swing in the exchange rate of naira versus the dollar that happened in the course of this year. So we've proactively engaged the trustees in terms of the bondholders of the Eurobond and that conversation is ongoing. Internally, on our side, like Jeremy mentioned, we had a plan of showing up the capital ratios for Ecobank Nigeria. Jeremy mentioned that we've -- the Board -- the local Board of Nigeria has approved Ecobank Nigeria to raise AT1 of $200 million. That would, of course, materially get the capital ratio above the 10% threshold. It is also important to mention the second -- the last question that you raised in terms of the new minimum capital requirement in the market. For a national bank of Ecobank Nigeria status, the new minimum requirement is NGN 200 billion. Currently, Ecobank Nigeria has NGN 193 billion in terms of share capital and share premium. The differential is just NGN 7 billion. If translated to dollars, that's just about $5 million. So Ecobank Nigeria has one of the lowest in terms of requirement to meet the new capital requirements in the market. And $5 million is not material and this is something that will be dealt with in the short term, ahead of the deadline given by the Central Bank of March 2026. So I think those are the major questions that you raised. I hope that's clear, Ngozi.

We'll take our next question from Ndamu Sandu.

My name is Ndamu Sandu from NewsDay, a newspaper in Zimbabwe. My first question is the CEO mentioned that focus -- there will be more focus on the markets where you feel you can do better, but you are not doing well. I wanted to find out is Zimbabwe a part of that market where you feel you can do better than what you have achieved? And then secondly, there's conversation around the AfCFTA, which is seen as Africa's master plan. I wanted to find out from the bank how are you going to finance such a major project?

Ndamu, we couldn't -- we lost you on the first part of your question. You faded off to a point we couldn't hear. Could you repeat that part of the question?

I'm saying the first part where the CEO mentioned that Ecobank will focus more in the markets where you didn't -- where you feel you do more than what you are doing at the moment. I wanted to find out is Zimbabwe part of that market where you'll put more effort to achieve more in terms of growth?

Okay. I can take that question or those set of questions right now. To answer the question that you just asked, Zimbabwe is a core affiliate for us. It's a top 5 affiliate within the group. We have a very strong leadership team and the business is doing well. Obviously, there have been recent developments within the course of this year that have led to some adjustments in terms of the dollar-based outcomes. But we definitely see it as one of the core businesses we're investing in, we see it as a business that can grow strongly in the future, and is one which is getting a lot of our attention. On Africa Continental Free Trade, like I said, part of our strategy is to grow our trade business across the continent. We are in 33 countries on the continent and trade is a very strong component of our growth. We also have a good strong payments business, which reinforces that trade. So we are obviously working with the authorities in the respective countries to try and see how we can actually actualize this. And we have plans that are evolving over time working with those respective governments. One of the things we've done is we've also launched one trade hub, which is an online platform that allows buyers and sellers to come on and share their wares and see how we can create trade opportunities. And we're finding that this has got about 3,000 already customers on it, and we believe it's growing quickly. And we're going to integrate this into our payments platform in the future. So we see the AfCFTA being an exciting opportunity, and we're trying to actualize it on the ground with real customers trading real goods and services.

We'll take our next question from [ Onumu ].

So my questions. One, I'd like to know if you are still interested in selling a minority stake in Ecobank Nigeria. You had thoughts on this a bit, during the last call you had. Two, the broad rationalization you're doing across Africa, deciding if you can just scale up operations in some places, if you can just scale down licenses in other places. Do you have a time line when this will be concluded? And then thirdly, I'd like some color on your Ghana unit. I know you had made mention of some change, I believe, if I heard you correctly, in CRR. Is it material to operations? Are you going to need to -- would it impact lending in any way or form?

Okay. Maybe I'll come in, and then maybe, Ayo, if you want to come in and attend to the CRR. But I'll come and answer those in return. I think we've given clarity with regards to Nigeria around our capital raising efforts. So we're going to pursue those. And obviously, we will make any announcements as and when we have our subsequent session. So I think that in itself answers its own question. So it's quite clear what it is we're doing there. And we're talking to investors around our AT1. I think I just want to clarify on the participation model. You mentioned about rationalizing, and I'm not suggesting that -- I don't want it to be misunderstood as Ecobank is going to be rationalizing in the way that you might suspect. What I would say is that it is more a focused model. We want to be very clear where we participate, where we bring strength. Each market is different and our position in those markets also varies. In some markets, we are dominant. Today, we are #1 in about 8 markets, we are top 3 in another 7, and then top 5 in a total of about 20. So in those markets, we have a position of strength and we will grow from there. But in some of our younger markets, we need to be clear how we're going to differentiate ourselves. And within the models when we look at, it also ties into the segments and customers that we serve. And that will inform whether we go about it in a digital away. We talked about, for example, serving the affluent segments in some of these markets because we feel there's gaps in terms of the current market product offering, and we bring strength and experience to bear there. We will also come with digital offerings among a whole series of others. So I think just watch this space. And I think as we come to future earnings calls, we will provide further updates on that front. In terms of the last question to do with CRR, all I was indicating is, is that it's a dynamic environment. The regulator introduced some new CRR rules which were tied to loan-deposit ratios. So essentially, if you have a lower deposit -- a lower LDR, your CRR becomes higher. So that obviously means that you've got lower earning assets. So it's material for some banks, but we are just working our way through it. I think what is exciting for us with regards to Ghana is that we're back to being the #1 bank in both revenues and PBT. And we still see room for growth in that market in a multitude of different areas. So it still remains core to us, even though it is going through some challenges -- has gone through some challenges recently.

Our next question would come from the line of [ Steven Sima ].

I have 2 questions here. First, in terms of asset quality, we saw a jump in NPLs to 6.6%, about $676 million in nominal terms. And the bank had said in the press release and explained that this was on the back of higher NPLs in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. I really appreciate if I could get some more clarity on this, perhaps a sectorial contribution to NPLs in these regions, how diversified their loan books are? And of course, what plans the bank is making to ensure that NPLs remain around the full year '24 guidance of 6% and 7%. Secondly, on the performance of ETI in Nigeria, could this performance in the Nigeria subsidiary materially impact the group's results this year and to what extent? I would just like to get a touch on that.

Chinedu, do you want to take the first question?

Yes, I'll take the first question on the NPL. I think if you may recall, our guidance for NPL last year was 5% to 6%. Coming into this year, acknowledging the impact on some of our obligors from the evolving situations in markets, particularly in Ghana and Nigeria as we highlighted, and also the reality that the denominator in that calculation, which is the gross loans, it's now -- we have been managing it -- or more like optimizing it in terms of encouraging greater volatility, in terms of the activities there, a greater churn, focusing on cross-sell and also earnings from other activities apart from lending. You've seen that impact and you reduce gross loans. That's why we changed the guidance to 6% to 7%. That guidance accommodates all that we anticipate will be evolution into that bucket in the course of this year. And actually, in terms of the gross loans, because -- as I said, we are also focusing on growth. So it's not like there's a focus on not growing. There's a focus on growth. We just want to grow more in terms of local currency, shorter term of transactions trade-related with a lot of cross-sell, as you have seen in our numbers. So actually going to the end of the year, we anticipate gross loans will be there about, we'll come within that 0% to 2% or thereabout in terms of growth. So we will possibly arrive at 11 billion by the end of the year. But it will be more the type of loans that we'll seek. That also assures that we will be able to meet the benchmark in terms of our NPL ratio by the end of the year despite the headwinds that we've highlighted. Ayo, do you want to pick up the second question?

Yes. Exactly. I was going -- yes. If I can pick up the second question on Nigeria. In terms of the impact on the group this year, I think I'll approach it from 2 perspectives. One is from a capital perspective in terms of the currency depreciation, the rollover effects of the group. And the second is from a performance standpoint. Starting with the first one, the impact of currency depreciation. So if you see where Nigeria is today, the equity assets in Nigeria is about $200 million, right? So the likelihood of the currency depreciation happening that would result in a bigger FCTR there is very low, right? So even if the currency depreciated by 10% or 20%, for example, hypothetically, in the next 6 months or 1 year, the impact is limited to $20 million or $40 million from an FCTR standpoint. So that's number one. The impact is limited from an FCTR standpoint. The second point is on general performance. Like Jeremy earlier mentioned, the proportion of Nigeria today to the group is small, right? So they are -- the rest of the group, whether it's Francophone West Africa, Anglophone West Africa and CESA, they are contributing much more to the group. So if you look at Nigeria, the downside risk is limited. But of course, there are opportunities in the market, as Jeremy earlier highlighted. So if your question is focused on a likely negative downside because of the limited contribution of Nigeria to the group, then the probability of negative consequences on the group is also limited. So from this 2 points, the FCTR underperformance, they both indicate lower negative impact on the overall group's result. That is not to say that we are not focused on transforming the business. As earlier I highlighted, our focus is on transforming on consumer and commercial led businesses and emphasizing on payments, trade, remittances and the likes.

We'll take our next question from the line of [ Dimitri Ivanoff ].

May I just kind of clarify like maybe some kind of follow-up question on this currency dynamic in key geographies. I mean you mentioned already the current like ratios, capital ratios as of Q1 2024. Given that we continue to see some weakness in some of the currencies like in Ghana and, of course, in Nigeria, what you already discussed, how should we approach like capital ratios going forward? So basically, by the end of the year, like should we expect these ratios to decline and maybe just to go more to the minimum thresholds, which you discussed? So if you could like kind of share any trajectory when it comes to capital ratios given the currencies -- dynamics with currencies, that would be great. And the second question, apologies again, like on this capital breach covenant under the bond, the $300 million bond of Ecobank Nigeria. I think you mentioned that it's not event of default at the moment, but is my understanding correct that bondholders can like announce like event of default because it's like -- and it could result in acceleration? I'm just like curious just to confirm that potentially this breach could result in event of default. And if it happens, like should we be concerned about other obligations, liabilities of Ecobank Nigeria? Should there like be like other cross defaults and et cetera? So basically, I just wanted to get some color on this potential implication of the breach of the covenant, because, as of now, there is no default, but if it happens, how should we look at this scenario?

I guess I would pass on to Ayo.

So in terms of the first question, in terms of the capital ratio, the likelihood of further currency depreciation in the second half of the year. So I think the way I would approach that question is if you think about it, in the first half, we've generated attributable profit of about $160 million, right? And the momentum in the business is going strong. So let's even assume that we do at a minimum the same in the second half of the year. I don't foresee additional FCTR of about $160 million in the second half of the year, either through Nigeria or Ghana. So what I'm saying is our organic capital generation in H2 is expected to be ahead of any possible additional FCTR in the second half of the year. To that extent, our total capital adequacy ratio that we reported now should not be lower by the end of the year, generally speaking. So yes, we're expecting some depreciation, but not to the extent of the underlying momentum growth in the attributable profit that we're generating in the business. That's the first question. In terms of the second question on Nigeria. So what has happened, like I said, is a breach of covenant. It is not an event of default. So those 2 are technically different. Typically, when you have a breach, you are given a time period to remediate that breach. Like I mentioned, we are proactively engaged with the trustees and we're working through all of the actions towards remediating that breach. We do not envisage or foresee an event of default happening. So that's the way we see it right now. We don't envisage it. Ecobank Nigeria is doing all it can, of course, continue to be supported by the large Ecobank group to ensure that, that does not happen. I don't know if that answers the question, [ Dimitri ].

Yes, that answers. And apologies. I know like 2 questions only, but like maybe a follow-up on this question. I hope that you will get like all waivers from bondholders and et cetera. But like -- and of course, I understand this is like your best case scenario. But imagine like in a hypothetical scenario, you don't get this waiver and there is acceleration, what's like your plan to replace this bond? Like does Ecobank Nigeria have enough liquidity or there is expected parent support? So basically, if there is like a worst case scenario, and we hope this is like a very low probability scenario, is there like a plan B?

So first of all, yes, [ Dimitri ], that's a low probability scenario. And just to highlight, the agreement itself provides for a period of remediation. So it is not -- it is highly unlikely that the bondholders would automatically trigger the acceleration because of the terms of the contract. The terms of the contract indicate that where there is a breach, right, the trustees and the bondholders will provide the issuer a time period to remediate that breach. And like I said, based on the actions ongoing in Nigeria and with the support of the group, we are fully committed to supporting Nigeria to address or to achieve that objective. In the unlikely scenario, like you said, which is a low probability, then ETI -- ETI working with Ecobank Nigeria would definitely prepay those bonds voluntarily, not at the request of the senior notes order. So this will be an independent voluntary decision. Like I mentioned, this is an unlikely scenario. Based on the feedback and discussions that we've held with the trustee so far, it's been largely positive. And also based on the terms of the contract, we'll be provided a mediation period. So those things are the more likely scenarios which we are looking at. I hope that answers your question, [ Dimitri ].

Our next question, I believe, will be coming from the line of [ Mukhtar Abdullahi ].

So my question is on your assessment of your refinancing prospects, especially given the overhang from Nigeria, in which if we see a worst case scenario where there is a funding acceleration, you have a breach, that is supposed to be taken out by Eurobond issuance. The market is still somewhat tight. So how do you assess your refinancing prospects? Moody's has put you on a negative outlook citing concerns around your maturities, upcoming maturities in the near term. So just give us some color on that risk.

I believe Ayo would...

In terms of refinance, like I earlier mentioned, there is a low probability of that to be in our solution. So this is an unlikely scenario, like I earlier mentioned. But even if we get to that stage on a worst-case basis, hypothetically, like I mentioned, the group has the resources to voluntarily prepay the $300 million. I think that answers that particular question. I think just to reiterate again, it is important to highlight that what we have in Nigeria is just a breach of the covenant. It does not affect the ability of Ecobank Nigeria to continue to service its bond obligation, whether interest or principal. Like Jeremy mentioned, we just serviced interest payments a few days ago, last week Friday. So this is not a liquidity risk. So this is just a pure capital breach. It does not affect the liquidity of Ecobank Nigeria to continue to meet its obligation. So in first instance, we're focusing on remediating the capital breach. Of course, on a worst case, low probability case, we just voluntarily prepay the $300 million of Eurobond. I hope that answers your question, [ Mukhtar ].

Our next question will come from the line of [ Steven Sima ].

So quickly, I just wanted to get a sense of the outlook for the GTR strategy. I mean looking at the slides, you -- in the particular slide that you made mention of the positive 6-month progress update so far in the year. I was wondering, looking into the second half of the year, what specific objectives, goals would the bank be looking to achieve, particularly for ETI Nigeria that, of course, is at the center of this strategy? What specific plans do the bank -- would the bank be looking to achieve in second half of the year vis-a-vis the GTR strategy?

As you can imagine, we have a series of agenda items that we work on with management and closely with the Board. Like I've tried to give an indication within the -- of the things which we are doing. And so we have balance sheet metrics we look at. We have growth metrics. We've established sales teams. We are building capabilities within the bank, which is for not just short, but medium- and long-term growth, where -- when we look at the Consumer and the Commercial businesses, we're expanding out not just the sales function, but also the credit function. We're investing heavily on the Payments business and the Trade business. I've given you examples of those. So we have indicators around each of these areas that we are looking at and the activities that will drive the result of those outcomes. So they're quite clear. What we'll obviously be guided by is the year-on-year on attainment of the budget. We've given you the guidance there. I don't think we can really give more than that. What I will commit to is, as we look through and we execute that agenda, we will share the progress that we've made on that agenda with probably more metrics in the future. And that's something we will do in subsequent earnings session. But it will be broken down. You'll be able to see that. We expect to see stronger growth, like I say, as Ayo mentioned, in the affiliates like CESA, AWA, UEMOA. I wouldn't say ENG is central to our overall performance, as we've mentioned severally during this presentation, but it is important that we turn it around to deliver for the future. And those agenda items are being executed by not just the ENG team, but also with the support of the group team.

I think I see one question in the mailbox coming from [ James Ola-Adisa ]. So James is asking, given that the breach in covenant is not a liquidity risk but a result of weak capitalization in Ecobank Nigeria, what steps will be taken to adequately capitalize the Nigerian business beyond the recapitalization requirement?

Ato, if I can answer that question. I think we've touched on that question before. We said that Ecobank Nigeria is currently raising AT1 of about $200 million. That exercise is ongoing. And that would sufficiently -- more than sufficiently address its capital requirements. That's number one. Then the second part of what we also discussed was in terms of the absolute floor minimum for capital for a national bank in Nigeria, Ecobank Nigeria currently has NGN 193 billion. The new requirement is NGN 200 billion. So that's just like NGN 7 billion or $5 million of capital requirement. So there's ongoing plans for that $5 million to be dealt with in very short order. So that would address that aspect. I hope that's clear.

And if there are no further questions, I think it's okay for me to bring today's call to an end. Sorry, just one more question, if you don't mind. [ Dimitri ], please unmute for your last question.

Apologies. Like one quick follow-up question. On this AT1 exercise that you just mentioned, like $200 million, could you kind of clarify if it will be placed with like international, like local investors, so like some participation of the parent is also expected in this AT1? So who like are expected investors, provider of capital in this AT1, $200 million, that would be very helpful?

I think we're engaging all the relevant parties, both international DFIs, local players as well. So the universe is broad. So we continue to engage on that basis, yes.

I guess there are no further questions. So then we'll bring today's call to an end. If there's any closing remarks from Jeremy, I would allow you to before we bring this meeting to an end.

I think -- thanks, Ato. I think we mentioned the summary in my presentation. So it's just to thank everyone for joining this first half session today. Thank you for your questions. And we look forward to the next session that we will hold in the future. Thank you very much, everyone.

Okay. Thank you. Once again, thanks for joining. I will bring today's call to an end. If you have any more questions, kindly reach out to Investor Relations, and we'll see you next quarter.