Wema Bank recently released it Half Year 2015 numbers which were in all respects ugly.
The lender reported profit for the period which were down 30 percent, net interest income down by 7.2 percent, and net fee income down 12 percent.
However one line item that struck us as really negative for a bank was the slide in deposits from customers.
Wema Bank reported that deposits from customers fell to ₦234 billion in the period, down 9.3 percent in just 6 months from ₦258.9 billion in December 2014.
Deposits from banks were unchanged at ₦3.2 billion.
Loans and advances to customers also fell to ₦134.5 billion from ₦149.2 billion.
We think it will be challenging for Wema Bank to increase profits without access to cheap deposits to boost its Net Interest Margins (NIM).
The slide in its loan book is also not a good sign.
The bank De-leveraged its balance sheet in the period as total assets fell by 10 percent to ₦344.6 billion.