- Zenith Bank Reports N491b Earnings in Nine Months
Zenith Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading banks and the 2019 bank of the year, grew gross earnings to N491.268 billion in the first nine months of the year, up from N474.607 billion reported in the same period of 2018.
In the financial statements released through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the bank net interest income decreased slightly from the N228.517 billion posted in the first nine months of 2018 to N214.627 billion in the first nine months of 2019.
The difference was due to the drop in interest and similar income from N339.063 billion to N321.938 billion.
The lender profit before tax rose from N167.307 billion in the same period of 2018 to N176.183 billion.
Accordingly, profit after tax grew from N144.179 billion to N150.723 billion in the first nine months of the year.
“Our retail and corporate banking franchises continued its momentum with customers’ deposits growing by seven to N3.95 trillion from N3.69 trillion recorded as at December 2018, a reflection of increasing share of the industry’s deposits and customers’ confidence in the Zenith brand. These deposit acquisitions have directly contributed to our cost of funds improving from 3.3 per cent in 2018 to 2.95 per cent in 2019,” Zenith Bank stated.
The bank further said its gross loans and advances grew by seven percent from N2.02 trillion in December 2018 to N2.2 trillion as of September 2019.
“Our focus remains the search for bankable lending opportunities to ensure the attainment of the minimum regulatory loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of 65 per cent by December 31, 2019 without compromising our prudence. Our robust risk management framework has ensured that non-performing loans (NPL) ratio declined from 4.98 per cent in December 2018 to 4.95 per cent in the current period. Our commitment to maintaining a shock-proof balance sheet remains with liquidity and capital adequacy ratios at 63.8 per cent and 23.8 per cent respectively, both above regulatory thresholds,” it said.
The bank promised to sustain its competitiveness and market share in the final quarter of the year.