Non-interest income, customer deposits grow as UBA announces 32.3% profit after tax

October 23, 2019 1:58 pm

United Bank for Africa (UBA) has announced a 32.3% in after-tax net profit from the N61.69 billion recorded in the third quarter of 2018 to N81.63 billion.

In a statement released on Tuesday to announce the release of its Q3 results, the bank said its profit before tax grew by 24.2% to N98.2billion putting its annualised return on average equity at 20.6%.

According to the report filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), UBA’s net operating income improved by 11.6% year-on-year to N265.99 billion while gross earnings rose to N428.22 billion, representing a 14.2% increase from it’s N374.8 billion September 2018 position.

“Despite the double-digit inflation rate in Nigeria(its largest market) coupled with uncertainties in the business environment in Nigeria and in some countries in the rest of Africa, UBA’s curtailed operating expenses only increased by 8.4 % and this was largely due to regulatory costs,” the statement read.

“The bank continues to maintain a very strong balance sheet, with total assets of N4.96 trillion, an increase over the N4.87 trillion recorded in December 2018.

“Customer deposits also grew to N3.37trillion. The shareholders’ fund remained very strong at N555.53 billion, rising by 10.5% and reflecting a strong capacity for internal capital generation.”

Commenting on the results, Kennedy Uzoka, the group managing director, said: “The resilience of our business model and our focused growth of earning assets have yielded a 10.8% growth in interest income.

“In addition to the commendable yield on interest-earning assets, we also achieved a 22.1% growth in non-interest income, driven largely by the increased penetration of our superior digital banking offerings, credit expansion, remittances and other lifestyle transactional services.”

In line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive to increase loan to deposit ratio to 60% by September and 65% by December, the bank said that the loan book grew by 14.7%.

UBA operates in 20 African countries with presence in London, New York and Paris.