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Coris Bank International Burkina Faso made $73.5 million (41.7 billion CFA francs) in the first half of this year, a rise of 23.5 percent, while setting aside 48.1 percent more against bad loans than it did a year earlier.
The cost of risk reached $14.6 million (8.3 billion CFA francs) over the six months to June, against $9.9 million (5.6 billion CFA francs), taking it to the highest level the bank has recorded for any first half since at least 2018. The measure captures what a lender books to cover potential losses on its loan book, through provisions and reversals of provisions.
Coris did not explain the increase in the published documents, and the figure alone does not establish that the quality of its portfolio has deteriorated across the board.
The rest of the results moved in the bank's favour. Net banking income, the equivalent of revenue for a bank, climbed 21.2 percent to $139.2 million (78.9 billion CFA francs), and gross operating income reached $87.1 million (49.4 billion CFA francs), up 16.1 percent.
Deposits grew considerably faster than lending. Customer deposits rose 23.2 percent to $4.00 billion (2,266.5 billion CFA francs), while the loan book expanded from 1,246.1 billion CFA francs in June last year to 1,328.7 billion, an increase of $145.7 million (82.6 billion CFA francs).
The rise in the risk charge follows a sharp correction. Coris cut its full-year cost of risk to $29.1 million (16.5 billion CFA francs) in 2025 from $71.4 million (40.5 billion CFA francs) the previous year, attributing the improvement to cleaning up the portfolio and strengthening recovery.
Idrissa Nassa founded Coris Bank International and has built it into the largest banking group in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, a position it now shares with Ecobank. The group ranked third in the union in 2024 and its balance sheet has since reached $12.52 billion (7,099 billion CFA francs), with Société Générale losing 1.6 percentage points of market share over the same period.
Diakarya Ouattara serves as managing director of Coris Holding.
The bank agreed to distribute close to $51.1 million (29 billion CFA francs) in dividends after 2025 profit rose 37 percent, and is preparing a Cameroonian subsidiary that will include an Islamic finance arm.
Burkina Faso has been under military government since 2022 and faces an insurgency across large parts of its territory, conditions that have complicated lending across the Sahel. Coris has continued expanding regionally through that period and now operates across several West African markets.
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