JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's FirstRand Ltd on Thursday posted a 10% rise in first-half earnings, helped by stronger overall credit performance.

Its normalised earnings rose to 20.9 billion rand ($1.14 billion) in the six months ending Dec. 31, from 19.1 billion rand a year earlier, the bank said.

FirstRand, which also operates across certain markets in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK, declared an interim dividend of 219 cents per share, up from 200 cents a year earlier.

($1 = 18.3016 rand)