United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) on Thursday announced pre-tax profit of N40.270 billion for the second half of the year. That is a 3.1 percent increase from N39.046 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Profit after tax rose from N31.999 billion in 2015 to N32.62 billion, while gross earnings declined from N165.7 billion in 2015 to N165.5 billion.
“The results have been achieved amidst waning economic fundamentals. We delivered profit in excess of N40 billion and grew balance sheet by 20 per cent, with our on-balance sheet total assets crossing the N3trillion mark. Even as Naira depreciation and inflationary pressure increased the cost of doing business in Nigeria, we leveraged our economics of scale, enhanced operational efficiency and Group shared service structure to moderate our cost-to-income ratio by 90bps,” said Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, the Group Managing Director/CEO, UBA Plc.
Net interest income stood at N10.7 billion, down from N14.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2015.
While, net impairment charges jumped to N6.8 billion from N2.211 billion.
However, fees and commission income rose from N30.357 billion to N36.936 billion. Both net trading and foreign exchange income improved from N18.217 billion to N19.637 billion.
The directors recommended an interim dividend of 20 kobo per share.