Unity Bank reports N37bn earnings, says it cleaned up its books

Results released by Unity Bank for the 2018 financial year has shown that the bank recorded gross earnings of N37.33 billion.

According to results sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange and seen by TheCable, the bank recorded a profit after tax of N1.27 billion; reversing the negative results posted in 2017.

Other performance indices showed significant growth with net operating income for the year ended December 31, 2018 growing by 112 per cent to N21.63 billion from N10.22 billion in the corresponding period of 2017.

Non-interest income also increased to N6.3 billion from N1.61 billion recorded in 2017.

According to the bank, its performance was supported by the decision to clean up its books by eliminating all the legacy non-performing loans.

Commenting on the results, Tomi Somefun, the bank’s managing director said: “The most gratifying aspect of our 2018 performance, is that the bank has made a dramatic turnaround from losses in the previous year to a promising profit position in 2018.

“This was made possible by growth in the business throughputs and transaction-based banking with its attendant strong non-interest income.

“We equally recorded significant growth in our customer acquisition through enhanced customer-centric products that we rolled out during the year, riding on our rebranded channels and platforms, which were well accepted by the youth.

“We leveraged on our exceptional competencies in agribusiness and rural economy niche market, which contributed to substantial growth in loans through on-lending schemes to farmers in the last quarter of 2018, all of which buoyed our performance for the year under review.”