The Board of Directors of Africa Prudential Plc, Nigeria’s leading registrar and a key player in the capital market, has proposed the payment of N1 billion as dividend to qualifying shareholders of the company.

This is in line with the resolution made at the Company’s Board meeting which held on Thursday, February 18, 2021, as the Board resolved to pay a dividend of 50 Kobo per ordinary share, amounting to N1,0000,000,000 (One billion Naira only).

It is essential to understand that the dividend recommended by AfriPrud’s Board is subject to appropriate Withholding Tax, and the approval of shareholders at the Company’s Annual General Meeting.

What you should know

• The dividend recommended by the board of AfriPrud in 2020 is 28.57% lower when compared to the total dividend of 70 kobo per share paid to shareholders last year for 2019.
• It is important to note that the dividend declared is subject to appropriate withholding tax and the approval of shareholders at the Company’s next Annual General Meeting.
• However, with a share price of N7.3 per share at the close of trading activities on the floor of NSE for last week, the dividend yield of the company stands at 6.85%.

Ecobank Group has recorded a revenue of over N630 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020. This represents a 7% growth when compared to N586.9 posted in the corresponding period of 2019.

In its unaudited report submitted to the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, the pan-African bank stated that value of its total assets now stands at N10.2 trillion after a 19% rise.

The bank also recorded superlative performance in other key financial indices despite the harsh operating environment.

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Summary of the report showed that Deposits from customers went up 23% to N7.3 trillion; Total equity up 17% to N805.1 billion; while Loans and advances to customers grew by 9% to N3.7 trillion.

However, despite the bank’s good showing in deposits from customers and revenue, profits was impacted by the provisioning for goodwill for the acquisition of Oceanic Bank in 2011. Consequently, the bank ended with profit after tax of N35.9 billion, while profit before tax and goodwill impairment closed at N126.4 billion.

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The Ecobank Group had stated that it is optimistic that with clean book aftermath of the full provisioning for Oceanic Bank, it will improve on its profitability in 2021 and other years ahead.