By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s top tier lender, Zenith Bank Plc has proposed a 25 kobo interim dividend to its shareholders in its first-half (H1) ended June 30, 2015 , the lender said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Zenith says qualifying date for payment of the 25 kobo per share dividend is August 21, while closure of register is August 24, 2015.

This is the first ever interim dividend to be proposed by the bank and Zenith says payment date has been scheduled for August 28, 2015.

A review of the H1 report of the bank shows that pretax profit for the period ended June 30, 2015 increased 24.78 percent to N72.20 billion from N57.85 billion recorded a year ago.

Similarly, post tax profit grew 12.1 percent to N53.2 billion from N47.44 billion reported the same period of last year.

Gross earnings increased from N184.43 billion in 2014 first-half to N229.1 billion in the review period of 2015; indicating an increase of 24.21 percent, the lender said in a filing to the NSE.

Shares of Zenith at the close of Thursday’s trading on the Nigerian bourse came down 2.5 percent to close at N15.99 per share.