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FRIDAY EKEOBA
Following the daunting challenges in the domestic economy, WEMA Bank Plc on Thursday posted a 16 per cent rise in its gross earnings unaudited financial result for the six month ended June 30th 2016.
According to its filling to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for verification, the bank’s gross earnings rose to N24.3billion in 2016 compared to N20.9 billion last year.
However, while profit after tax for the period under consideration climbed to N1.1 billion as against N0.99 billion in 2015, and shareholders fund equally rising to N47.2 billion as N46.1 billion last year, customer deposit depreciated by 2.5 per cent, from N85.0 billion to N277.6 billion in 2016.
Commenting on the bank’s financial, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer,Segun Oloketuyi said “The 2016 financial year has been a rather eventful one for the Nigerian economy. The year has been characterized by deceleration on a number of economic indicators coupled with increasing energy costs, intensified by rising inflation, all within a tough operating environment. The banking industry has also not been exempted from these challenges.
He noted that in spite of the gloomy economy, Wema Bank was able to deliver a modest improvement in the first half of the year. “Interest income grew by 15.2 per cent from N17.5 billion in H1 2015 to N20.2 billion in the current period, while fee and commission income improved significantly by 42.3 per cent from N2.2 billion in H1 2015 to N3.1 billion in H1 2016. This growth in non-interest revenues was driven by our ongoing initiative to enlarge our footprint in the retail space while keeping customers at the heart of our operations. We believe that this is where we will continue to win in the marketplace.
“We continued to closely monitor our costs as we optimize our operations. Operating expenses grew from N11.1 billion in H1 2015 to N11.4 billion at a rate of 2.7 per cent, lower than Year-To-Date inflation rate of 13.26 per cent. We achieved this through the continued migration of customers to alternative channels and deliberate efforts at reducing our cost to serve. These efforts are reflected in our Profit before Tax growing by 11 per cent to N1.3 billion from N1.2 billion in H1 2015. While we have increased our loan to deposit ratio from 65.1 per cent in December 2015 to 67.5 per cent as at June 2016, our emphasis on selective risk creation ensured we kept our Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio below 3 per cent, which is significantly lower than the industry average. We expect that this risk underwriting discipline should continue to serve as a foundation for us to deliver consistent satisfactory results to our stakeholders in the second half of the year.
“We are also delighted by the affirmation of our current investment grade rating by Fitch rating agency; a ratification of the sustained performance over the last few years. We commence the second half of the year with a sense of cautious optimism; well aware that the economic fundamentals point to an economy heading for further slowdown, yet hopeful that additional fiscal initiatives will be implemented to stimulate growth. We are awaiting final regulatory approvals for our debt capital raise and we expect to conclude the process this quarter. The Bank is continuously being transformed and while we are pleased with the current results, we are aware of the tough task ahead. We remain committed to all our stakeholders in delivering value across board. The focus on growing our retail base and engaging our customers through mobile and alternative platforms should yield benefits to the bottom-line as we also continue to monitor and manage our risk portfolio and asset quality”, he added.
Other financial highlight for the bank showed that profit before tax rose to N1.29 billion from N1.17 billion, representing a 10.62 per cent increase. Total Deposit improved 11 per cent (Y-o-Y) from N237.43 billion in the previous period toN277.87 billion in H1 2016; however, there was a decline of 2.49 per cent in comparison to N284.98 billion in Dec. 2015.
The bank’s current Liquidity Ration stands at 31.37 per cent compared to 33.37 per cent in December 2015, even as NPL Coverage Ratio stands at 100 per cent compared to 109 per cent in December 2015.
Meanwhile, operational achievement for the bank revealed that it maintained its (BBB-) national scale credit rating from Fitch Rating Agency, just as it launched its USSD digital banking platform which enables customers to perform their banking transactions with the *945# code.
