Ecobank Recovers from Loss, Posts N70 Billion Profit After Tax

• Ecobank Recovers from Loss, Posts N70 Billion Profit After Tax

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of Ecobank Group, has recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of N69.992 billion for the year ended December 31, 2017, which is a recovery from a loss of N52.6 billion in 2016.

While ETI grew its gross earnings by 22.3 per cent from N542.7 billion in 2015 to N665 billion in 2016, it ended that year with a loss of N52 billion following the bank’s decision to clean its books of non-performing risk assets. The board and management then assured the shareholders and other stakeholders that efforts were being made to reposition the bank for better performance.

The audited results released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that the bank has overcome its challenges and back to profitability.

A breakdown of the results indicate that ETI recorded gross earnings of N763.633 billion in 2017, up by 15 per cent from N665 billion posted in the 2016. Net interest income rose from N283.961 billion to N299.324 billion. Fee and commission income also followed same growth trajectory, rising from N124.8 billion to N143.8 billion, while other income settled at N261.5 billion compared with N222.2 billion. Impairment losses fell by 43 per cent from N221.7 billion to N125.98 billion, making the bank to close the year with a profit before tax of N88.309 billion, as against a loss of N33.7 billion in 2016. Profit after tax stood at N69.992 billion, compared with a loss of N52.6 billion in 2016.

The bank explained that “Our customers showed their confidence in the firm’s value proposition by giving us more of their deposits, which grew by 13 per cent. Also, our actions to improve the firm’s efficiency were productive as will be our progressive moves to right-size and simplify our businesses, which have been designed to allow us to serve our customers better and create more sustainable value generation. We have reduced our efficiency ratio to 61.8 per cent, which evidences the effectiveness of these actions and we will continue to drive this ratio down,” it said.

ETI added that 2017 also marked two years into its five-year ‘Roadmap to Leadership’ and digitisation strategy through which it has made real strides in fixing the foundations on which its businesses can grow.