By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s tier one lender, Fidelity Bank Plc on Tuesday said its profit for the year ended December 31, 2014 rose 78.7 percent to N13.796 billion from N7.721 billion a year earlier.

Similarly, pretax profit grew 71.8 percent to N15.515 billion from N9.028 billion recorded last year.

Gross earnings also increased from N126.91 billion in 2013 audited period to N132.40 billion in the review period of 2014; indicating an increase of 4.32 percent, according to the lender in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Fidelity Bank in its corporate action said it’s proposing a dividend of 18 kobo per share to investors of the bank compared to 14 kobo paid a year ago; representing an increase in dividend of 28.6 percent.

The 18 kobo dividend is payable to shareholders whose names appear on the bank’s register as at the close of business on April 17, 2015, as earlier proposed by the directors of the bank for the financial year ended December 31, 2014. Closure date is April 20 to 24, 2015, while payment date is May 7, 2014.      

At the close of business today on the Nigerian bourse, share price of Fidelity Bank increased 9.55 percent to N1.57 on Monday to N1.72 in today’s session; gaining 0.15 kobo.