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Access Bank, one of Nigeria’s largest banks, said on Friday that its after-tax profit for the half-year ended on June 30, grew by 26 percent year-on-year despite the country’s challenging macro-economic environment.

The bank reported after-tax profit of N39.5 billion, up 26 percent from N31.3 billion posted a year earlier. Gross earnings grew marginally by 3 percent to N174 billion, compared with N168.3 billion a year earlier.

“Access Bank’s performance continues to be resilient in the face of a challenging macro-economic environment, which has been further exacerbated by double-digit inflation, amidst an untimely devaluation,” said Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank’s Group Managing Director/CEO. “The results underscore our continued ability to grow sustainably whilst effectively adapting to a challenging operating landscape.”

Access Bank said it recorded net foreign exchange losses of N11.1 billion during the period under review. However, these losses were cushioned by a marked increase in net interest income, which rose 42 percent to N68.5 billion, and net fee and commission income, which rose 111 percent to N35.6 billion.

“During the period, we grew our retail market share, leveraging innovation and technology to create lifestyle products and enhance customer experience. This growth has led to significant increase in our transaction volumes and fee-related income. In addition, our cost of funds dropped by 170 bps year-on-year reduction, reflecting the increase in our low cost funding base,” said Wigwe.

Due to the impact of the naira devaluation on foreign currency loans, Access Bank said its total assets rose by 26 percent to N3.27 trillion in the first half of the year, compared with N2.59 trillion in December 2015 and N2.9 trillion in the first six months of last year.

Impairment charges rose 15 percent year-on-year to N10.2 billion in H1 2016 while non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stood at 1.9 percent compared with 1.7 percent in December 2015.

With earnings per share rising by 19 percent to N1.61 per share, Access Bank has declared an interim dividend of 25 kobo per share.

Access Bank’s Group CEO said, “We believe that macro conditions will remain challenging. Nonetheless, our priority in the coming months will be to strengthen our position in the industry; increasing focus on risk and operational efficiency, with customer-centricity at the heart of our strategy.”

Access Bank’s stock closed at N5.6 per share on Friday, up 4.87 percent from the previous day’s close.