The United Bank for Africa (UBA), a leading financial institution in Nigeria and Africa, grew its interest income by 134% from N428.292 billion in the first half (H1) of 2023 to cross the N1 trillion mark in June 2024, according to the bank’s latest financial statement.

In the financial statement obtained by Investors King, Interest income on amortised cost and FVOCI securities also increased to N967.830 billion, a whopping 126.29% from N427.689 billion recorded in the corresponding period.

Similarly, net interest income appreciated 142.6% from N278.113 billion in H1 2023 to N674.618 billion in H1 2024.

Net interest income after impairment on financial instruments stood at N614.406 billion, a 394.8% increase from N124.169 billion filed in H1 2023.

Net fee and commission income rose by 85.3% from 78.296 billion in the same period in 2023 to N145.097 billion in H1 2024.

The leading financial institution’s profit before income tax rose to N401.577 billion while the bank paid N85.217 billion in tax during the period under review.

Profit after tax stood at N316.360 billion.

The bank proposed an interim dividend of N2.00 per share from the retained earnings account as at 30 June 2024.

This proposed interim dividend amounting to a pay-out ratio of 7.3% (30 June 2023:2.9%), and a yield of 8.9%.

Despite Nigeria’s rising debt profile, the Federal Government has received approval from the World Bank for additional loan requests totaling $1.57 billion.

The World Bank said the loan includes $500 million to address issues that constrain quality education and health while $570 million is for the Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Programme.

The remaining $500 million will go to the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria Project.

As of June, Nigeria has a total public debt of N121 trillion with N65.6 trillion domestic and N56 trillion or $42.1 billion representing the nation’s foreign debt. Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio rose above the 50% mark for the first time in June.

The multilateral financial institution on Monday said the latest fund was approved to support the Federal Government in strengthening human capital through better health for women, children and adolescents.

Also, it said the approved projects would also help build resilience to the effects of climate change such as floods and drought through improving dam safety and irrigation.

The statement read, “The World Bank has today approved three operations for a total of $1.57bn to support the Government of Nigeria in strengthening human capital through better health for women, children and adolescents and building resilience to the effects of climate change such as floods and droughts through improving dam safety and irrigation.”

“The HOPE-GOV and HOPE-PHC programmes combined will support the Government of Nigeria to improve service delivery in the basic education and primary healthcare sectors which are critical towards improving Nigeria’s human capital outcomes.

“The SPIN project will support improvement of dams’ safety and management of water resources for hydropower and irrigation in selected areas of Nigeria.

“The HOPE-GOV Programme will support Nigeria to address underlying governance weaknesses in the systems and procedures of government in two key human development sectors,” it noted.

The board of FBN Holdings Plc on Thursday announced that billionaire Olufemi Otedola has increased his holdings in the company a few weeks after Oba Otudeko’s shares were reduced to 3,110,400,619 due to his failure to prove ownership of the remaining 2,275,996,583 shares.

In a regulatory filing, Otedola purchased 534,094,407 shares between September 23 and 25 at N30.00 per share in Lagos, Nigeria. The billionaire paid N16.023 billion for the shares.

In July, Otedola paid N17.2 billion to acquire 797,946,415 shares at N21.58 per share, pushing his total stake to 11.64%.

While the latest purchase represents 1.49% of FBN Holdings, Otedola’s total stake in the bank is now 13.16% or 4.712 billion of the company’s total outstanding shares of 35.895 billion.

Olufemi Peter Otedola CON is a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist. He is the former chairman of Forte Oil Plc, and is the current executive chairman of Geregu Power PLC.

Otedola is also the founder of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, and the owner of a number of other businesses across shipping, real estate and finance.

He has recently invested in power generation as part of the liberalization of the sector in Nigeria.