One of the oldest financial institutions in Nigeria, Union Bank Nigeria Plc (UBN), has just released its audited financial statement for the full-year 2019, which shows an improvement in most of the performance indicators.
In a notification that was sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the banking group recorded a 10.3% growth in profit. The profit before tax as of December 31, 2019, was N20.35 billion as against the N18.45 billion that was achieved for the corresponding period for 2018.
In the same vein, the profit after tax for 2019 was N19.87 billion. This is against the N18.09 billion that was recorded for the corresponding period for 2018. This represents a 9.8% increase.
The gross earnings for full-year 2019 stood at N166.54 billion as against the N145.5 billion that was recorded for the corresponding period of 2018. This represents a 14.45% increase.
The net interest income as of December 31, 2019, was N52.5 billion as against the N51.6 billion that was achieved for the corresponding period for 2018. This shows a 1.8% increase.
The net fee and commission income for full-year 2019 stood at N11.3 billion as against the N10.9 billion that was recorded for the corresponding period for 2018. This shows a 3.8% growth.
(READ MORE: Union Bank downsizes operations, sells UK arm to MBU Capital)
The loans and advances to customers showed remarkable improvement as a total of N550. N6 billion was disbursed to them as of December 31, 2019, against the N473.46 billion that was disbursed for the corresponding period in 2018. This shows an approximately 16.3% increase.
This rise in the amount of credit facility that was granted to customers could be attributed to the recent policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that increased the loan to deposit ratio (LDR) for banks to 65%.
You can download the full report here.