Fidelity Bank Posts N9.102 Billion Profit After Tax in the Third Quarter

The ravaging COVID-19 and economic uncertainty weighed on Fidelity Bank’s earnings in the third quarter.

The bank’s profit before and after tax dropped when compared to the same period of 2019 due to the COVID-19 lockdown and challenging business environment.

In the unaudited financial statements released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the lender’s revenue dropped from N57.399 billion achieved in the third quarter of 2019 to N49.275 billion in the third quarter of 2020.

Fidelity, however, upped other interest and similar income for the period to N3.667 billion from N1.018 billion posted in Q3 2019.

Similarly, the bank’s interest expense moderated from N27.939 billion a year ago to N18.167 billion in Q3 2020.

This brings the lender total net interest income to N26.680 billion, up from N21.347 billion achieved in the corresponding quarter of 2019. Net interest income after expense/reversal stood at N23.485 billion in Q3 2020, better than N20.864 billion achieved in the same period of last year.

Profit before tax was impacted by the drop in fee and commission income (N4.955 billion) and the surge in the net personnel expenses (N6.430 billion) due to the COVID-19 lockdown that hurt consumer spending and general banking transactions.

Profit before tax declined from N10.785 billion in the third quarter of 2019 to N9.385 billion in the third quarter of 2020. While profit after tax dropped from N10.557 billion posted in the third quarter of 2019 to N9.102 billion in the third quarter of 2020.

Accordingly, earnings per share dipped from 36 kobo in Q3 2019 to 31 kobo in Q3 2020.