Co-operative Bank has reported a 57 per cent rise in profit before tax from Sh6.36 billion to Sh9.97 billion boosted by rapid growth in its customer base.

The customers grew 39 per cent, from 2.3 million to 3.3, lifting its earnings from fees and commissions by 21 per cent to reach Sh7.80 billion.

The non-funded income came from ATM transactions, banking commissions, mobile banking, forex income and letters of credit.

Group managing director Gideon Muriuki said growing customer numbers and branch network will continue to be key growth drivers while utilising the existing staff size.

"We are managing the operating costs while growing our presence. Every employee has to bring in five customers a month and senior management, this has continued to pick momentum," he said during an investor briefing yesterday.

Loans advanced grew by 9 per cent from sh109billion to Sh119.1 billion while net interest income grew from Sh11.88 billion to sh15.95 billion.

Co-operative Bank profit after tax rose 44 per cent from Sh5.36 to sh7.71 billion.

"Focus will now be on cross selling, 78 per cent of the 3.2 million customers only use one product, there is huge potential in providing to them more services like credit cards, mobile banking and more," Muriuki said.

It has invested Sh2.5 billion to migrate its core banking technology to handle expanding data.It will pay out Sh2.2 billion in dividend with shareholders getting 50 cents per share, up from 40 cents.

"We will continue with the moderate dividend payout since we want to retain more funds for expansion, rather than paying more then coming back to shareholders through a rights issue," Muriuki said.

Co-operative bank is preparing to open doors in South Sudan in April and also eying Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda in future.