Foremost financial institution, United Bank for Africa recorded N44.5bn profit before tax in the first quarter of 2022.
A statement on the bank’s unaudited results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, showed that it recorded growth across its income lines.
It said, “Leveraging on the growth in both interest and non-interest income, the bank’s profit before tax rose to N44.5bn as at March 2022, up from N40.6bn a year earlier, while profit after tax stood at N41.5bn.
“As always, UBA sustained its strong profitability recording an annualised 20.4 per cent return on average equity.”
The bank’s result which was released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange showed that gross earnings rose by 18.3 per cent from N155.4bn in 2021 to N183.9bn; while operating income which stood at N106.6bn as of March 2021, grew by 18 per cent to N125.9bn in the year under consideration.
The results revealed that the bank’s total assets also rose by 4.1 per cent to N8.9tn in the period under review, compared to N8.5tn recorded at the end of the 2021 financial year; while shareholders’ funds grew by 2.6 per cent to N825.7bn from N804.8bn in the same period.
UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kennedy Uzoka, explained that despite the myriad of economic challenges on the global front which shaped the first three months of the year, the bank’s business model continued to show resilience.
These challenges among others, he noted included the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine that has resulted in a huge supply shock, pushing up commodity prices; and the hike in the interest rates in most advanced countries aimed at tackling spiraling inflation, sparking capital flow reversal from emerging and frontier markets.
Uzoka said, “Notwithstanding these developments, we were able to leverage gains from our large customer base and vast geographical spread to bolster earnings.
“We recorded double-digit growth of 18 per cent in our gross earnings to N183.9bn, with our Nigerian operation raking in 65 per cent of the revenue while our operations in other countries accounted for the remainder, showing the diversity in our operations.”
UBA’s Group Chief Finance Officer, Ugo Nwaghodoh, said, “Our Q1’22 financial numbers show we are off with a good start. Particularly, 1 am pleased with how we deployed our balance sheet in the period to grow revenues and increase our market share in a number of West African markets.”
Credit: punchng.com
