Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa’s profit before tax rose by 12.6 per cent to N85.7bn in the first half of 2022 from N76.2bn recorded in the same period of 2021.
The bank disclosed this in a statement on its audited financial results for the half year ended June 30, 2022.
It noted that this was despite numerous business, economic as well as geo-political environmental challenges including continued supply-chain interruptions due to COVID-19, the Russia and Ukraine conflict, and the resultant rise in prices of global commodities, that characterised the first six months of the year.
The tier1 lender’s gross earnings rose by 17.8 per cent to N372.4bn from N316bn in the same period of 2021 financial year.
Operating income also grew by 20.1 per cent to N256bn in the period, while the firm’s profit after tax closed the first half at N70.3bn, up by 16.1 per cent compared to the N60.6bn of the same period in 2021.
A breakdown of the bank’s half-year result, which was filed with the Nigerian Exchange Group on Thursday showed that total assets continued on an upward trajectory, increasing 5.4 per cent to about N9tn.
UBA extended loans to credit-worthy customers, with loans and advances increasing by four per cent to N3tn; while deposits rose by 7.9 per cent to N7.6tn at the end of the period.
Shareholders’ funds however declined marginally by two per cent to N788.5bn, owing mainly to the decline in its foreign operations translation reserve, as well as fair value losses suffered from the investment securities valuation occasioned by the increasing interest rate regime across the globe.
With the strong double-digit growth in PAT vis-à-vis the marginal decline in shareholder’s fund, the Group’s return on equity closed the period stronger at 17.7 per cent, while return on assets came to 1.6 per cent, up by nine basis points.
Reaffirming its commitment to shareholders and the investing public, the board of directors of UBA declared an interim dividend of 20kobo per share for every ordinary share of N0.50 each held by its shareholders.
UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Alawuba, commenting on the result, said the performance was in line with management’s expectation.
“The bank’s continued focus on its customer 1st philosophy to pursue the mission of providing superior value to our stakeholders had increased low-cost customer deposits, and boosted the growth of its payment and transaction banking,” Alawuba said.
