Finance: Nigeria's Union Bank made N11.45 billion profit in 6 months

Union Bank posted a 15.6% increase in its gross earnings and a 24.5% improvement in its profit (after tax) for the period.

Nigeria's mid-tier bank, Union Bank Plc has posted N11.45 billion as profit in the last 6 months.

Union Bank, in its half-year unaudited financial result for the period ended June 30, 2018, posted a 15.6% increase in its gross earnings and a 24.5% improvement in its profit (after tax) for the period.

The bank’s half-year report was released on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday, July 25, 2018.

Here are the details of the financial report:

- The bank made N83.33 billion in gross earnings compared to N72.06 billion in half-year 2017.

- Interest earnings rose by 9.8% to N62.2 billion as against 2017 half-year figure of N56.63 billion.

- Interest expense grew slower by 4.9% to N27.85 billion from N26.53 billion.

- Expenses at the close of its books in June was at N39.2 billion compared to N32.41 billion spent by the end of June 2017.

- Union Bank deposit base risen by 3.03% during the six months period.

- Bank lending to customers dropped by 9.1% to N470.12 billion as at June 30, 2018, as against N517.1 billion which it had at the end of the 2017 financial year.

- Deposits' base grew from N802.38 billion as at December 2017 to N826.72 billion as at June 30, 2018.

- Liabilities grow by 6.4% to N1.18 trillion in the first half of the year.

 

From the financial result, Nigerian banks continued to take deposit from customers but turned back at lending just as its interest rates got slimmer. This act paved way for the potential threat posed to it by the fintech companies.

Also, former governor of Cross River state and Nigerian presidential aspirant for the 2019 presidential elections, Donald Duke, had harped on the need to redesign the arrangement where “banks take your deposit, makes a huge profit on it and will even not borrow you.”

He stated this when he appeared on Pulse Nigeria's Loose Talk Podcast on Friday, July 13, 2018.

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