Despite Recession, Nigeria’s Top Five Banks Record N2.3trn Earnings

Nigeria’s cumulative Gross Domestic Product in the last nine months slumped 2.48 per cent, but banks have shown resilience to the adverse effect of the Covid-19 pandemic with the tier-one banks pulling N2.3trn revenue in the first nine months of 2020.

In the second and third quarter of the year, Africa’s largest economy’s Gross Domestic Product fell by 6.1 per cent and 3.62 per cent respectively, a shock induced by the global health crisis.

Despite the setback, Nigeria’s top tier banks recorded a combined revenue of N2.3trn, up by seven per cent from the N2.17trn recorded during the nine months period of the year ending 2020.

THE WHISTLER gathered from the third quarter financial statement of the top lenders that aggregate Profit After Tax for the top tier lenders grew by 5.7 per cent to N548.5bn, from the N518.78bn recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

The country’s first tier lenders are First Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank Plc, Guarantee Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.  

Access Bank Plc’s  unaudited results for the period ended September 30th, 2020, showed that earnings grew by 15.4 per cent to N593bn from N513.7bn in the previous year.

The bank’s Profit After Tax grew by 15.7 per cent to N102bn, up from the N88.4bn recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

Access Bank Net Assets grew by 12 per cent from N607bn to N679bn, while Zenith Bank also posted an impressive growth, with the revenue rising 3.6 per cent despite the Covid-19 induced crisis to N508.97bn, up from the N491.3bn recorded in the same period last year.

The company recorded the highest profit out of the five listed top banks in the country at N159.3bn, representing 5.6 per cent growth from the N150.7bn recorded by the end of September last year.

By asset, Zenith bank led Nigerian lenders at N1trn, 18.6 per cent up from the N872bn recorded last year.

United Bank of Africa’s revenue rose by six per cent to N454.4bn up from the N428.7bn recorded in the same period of last year, while profit after tax declined by five per cent to N77.1bn from the N81bn recorded in the period ending September 2019.

The banks Net Assets grew by 9.6 per cent from N598bn to N655bn during the period.

Despite being hit by the pandemic, First Bank of Nigeria Plc witnessed a surge in gross revenue of N439.9bn, up from the N414.4bn recorded last year.

The lender’s profit jumped to N68.1bn, up by 31.7 per cent from the N51.7bn recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, recorded improved performance posting  a growth of 1.3  per cent to N328.4bn in its gross earnings for the period ended 30th September 2020, as against N324.3bn recorded in the corresponding period of  2019.

GTB’s Profit After Tax fell  to N142.3bn,  representing a downward slide from  the N146.98bn recorded in the same period of 2019.