Menu

Fidelity Bank has reported that its gross earnings rose by 18.8 per cent during the 2017 first quarter ended on March 31st. The Nigerian lender said earnings rose to N40.8 billion, compared to N34.4 billion in a similar quarter of last year.

The revenue growth was spurred by strong improvement in interest income from loans and advances to customers. Non-interest income, however, declined by 11.2 per cent to N4.6 billion from N5.2 billion posted a year earlier.

“Gross earnings growth was driven by a combination of increased yields on earning assets and an absolute growth in the volume of earning assets which led to a 24.1 percent year-on-year growth in interest income,” said Nnamdi Okonkwo, Fidelity Bank’s Managing Director/CEO.

After-tax profit rose 20.5 per cent to N4.3 billion, compared to N3.6 billion in Q1’16. The profit growth was due to the strong top-line growth. Impairment charges grew mildly by 1.5 per cent to N750 million, while operating expenses declined by 5.8 per cent to N15.6 billion. The decline in operating expenses was driven by a moderation in personnel expenses.

Fidelity Bank’s revenue and profit exceeded analysts’ expectations, according to CardinalStone Partners, a Lagos-based investment advisory firm.

“Our cost optimization initiatives continued to deliver cost savings . . .. We will continue to optimize our cost profile without impacting service delivery through the disciplined execution of the initiatives from our recently completed business optimization project,” Okonkwo said.

Total assets rose marginally by 1 per cent to N1.311 trillion as against N1.298 trillion as of December 31st, 2016. Basic earnings per share rose to 15 kobo per share, compared to 12 kobo per share a year earlier.

Fidelity Bank’s stock rose 2.41 per cent to close at 85 kobo per share at the Lagos bourse on Friday.