Labels of UITableViewCells loading very slowly

Question

As part of syncing phone to server, the phone takes data from API to populate tableview. Local placeholder images appear immediately and are replaced with remote images asynchronously. The problem is that the label for each row does not appear for up to twenty seconds until after the images have all downloaded even the label is a constant. How can I get labels to load more quickly?

-(void)configureCell:(IDItemCell *)cell withItem:(Items *)item {
    [cell layoutIfNeeded];
    //Label
   cell.nameLabel.text = @"TEST LABEL";//does not load for 20 seconds

//image
    NSString *picname = item.pic== nil ? @"" : item.pic;
    cell.iconView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"placeholder.png"];//loads instantly
 //remote fetch
    if (item.pic !=nil) {
        NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory,NSUserDomainMask, YES);
        NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
        NSString* path = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:
                          [NSString stringWithString: picname] ];
        if ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:path])
        {  
            cell.iconView.image =[self loadImageNamed:picname];
        } 
        else { 
            NSString *picURL = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"https://www.~/pics/%@",picname];
            dispatch_async(kBgQueue, ^{ 
                NSData *imgData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:picURL]];
                if (imgData) { 
                    UIImage *imageFromWeb = [UIImage imageWithData:imgData];
                    if (imageFromWeb) { 
                        [self saveImage:imageFromWeb asPicName:picname];
                        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ 
                            cell.iconView.image = imageFromWeb;
                            [cell setNeedsDisplay];
                        }); 
                    } 

                } 
            }); 

        } 
    } 

    // Rounding the image view
    cell.iconView.layer.cornerRadius = cell.iconView.frame.size.width / 2;
    cell.iconView.clipsToBounds = YES;  
    cell.iconView.contentMode = UIViewContentModeScaleAspectFill;
}