Fidelity Bank Plc has said its profit before tax rose by 53.9 per cent to N10.1bn for the period ended March 31, 2021.
It said this in a statement titled ‘Fidelity Bank Plc announces a 53.9 per cent growth in profit before tax to N10.1bn for the three months ended 31 March 2021’.
Details of the unaudited results showed that profit before tax grew by 53.9 per cent from N6.6bn in 2020 to N10.1bn for the corresponding period of March 31, 2021.
It said net revenue in the period increased by 13.4 per cent from N30.3bn in Q1 2020 to N34.4bn in 2021.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, said, “We commenced the year showing impressive double-digit growth in profitability and improved performance across key efficiency indices while ensuring our business model continued to deliver strong positive results in line with our guidance for the 2021 financial year.”
According to the statement, gross earnings increased by 7.7 per cent year-on-year to N55.1bn on account of 66.7 per cent growth in non-interest revenue to N12.1bn from N7.2bn in Q1 2020.
It said in absolute terms, the increase in NIR came from foreign exchange-related income, digital banking income and account maintenance charge, among others, as total customers’ induced transactions across all its service channels increased by 30.4 per cent y-o-y and 17.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
The banks said net interest margin remained unchanged at 6.3 per cent compared to 2020 as the drop in average funding cost offset the decline in average yields on earning assets.
Average funding cost dropped to 2.5 per cent from 3.6 per cent in 2020 due to a combination of improved deposit mix and a slight moderation in average borrowing cost.
It said this led to 26.2 per cent decline in total interest expenses, which translated to 17.1 per cent increase in net interest income to N28.8bn despite a 4.3 per cent increase in interest bearing liabilities.
The bank said it refinanced its seven-year N30.0bn Tier II bonds issued in 2015 at 16.48 per cent per annum with cheaper 10-year N41.2bn Tier II bonds priced at 8.5 per cent p.a., which led to a 61bpts drop in average borrowing cost to 4.5 per cent.
Credit: punchng.com
