By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Shareholders of Nigeria’s tier one lender, Access Bank Plc on Wednesday endorsed the payment of 65 kobo per share dividend for the period ended December 31, 2017.
At the 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank, Timothy Adesiyan and Adebayo Adeleke, shareholder group leaders and Nona Awoh, cerebral financial journalists and shareholder of repute commended the lender on its performance, despite the challenging economic indicators.
Similarly, Shareholders like Godwin Adio, Mukhtar Mukhtar and a host of others commended Access Bank for its value creation in the Nigerian financial services industry, advocacy for Fintech and consistent dividend payment to investors.
Mosun Bello-Olusoga, chairman of the bank in her statement said the board of Access Bank recognises the importance of dividends to shareholders and believes in balancing returns on investment for shareholders with support for the bank’s future growth and preservation of strong capital ratios.
According to her during the 2017 financial year, directors of the Bank declared and paid an interim dividend of 25 kobo for the half year (H1) ended June 30, 2017.
” In light of recent performance, the board recommends the payment of a final dividend of N0.40 per share, bringing the total dividend for the year ended December 31, 2017 to N0.65,” Bello-Olusoga added.
Access Bank in 2016 followed a similar dividend payment pattern as it paid a final dividend of 40 kobo per share in its 2016 audited year end and an earlier paid interim dividend of 25 kobo; totalling 65 per share for years 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Shares of Access Bank at the close of the session’s trading on the Nigerian bourse appreciated 0.44 percent to N11.35 per share from N11.30 traded the previous session; gaining 0.05 kobo per share.
In a review of the 2017 financial performance of the bank, the Access Bank chairman said the lender’s ability to generate strong financial performance despite the adverse market conditions and the residual issues from the recession is a testament to the tenacity of the Bank’s management and staff.
“We recorded top line growth as gross earnings improved 20 percent to N459 billion,” she affirmed. According to Bello-Olusoga , loans and advances grew by 11 percent to close at N2.1 trillion in 2017 from N1.9 trillion in 2016.
While Herbert Wigwe, GMD/CEO of Access Bank said despite marked improvement in the macro-economic backdrop, the residual effect of the recession intensified pressures on asset quality and cost of risk, resulting in weaker-than-expected earnings during the operating period.
Wigwe said overall quality of the bank’s risk assets was impacted as non-performing loan (NPL) ratio increased to 4.8 percent in 2017 from 2.1 percent in 2016 as a result of heightened risk environment. ” Total assets rose by 18 percent from N3.5 trillion to N4.1 trillion while loans and advances of the Group grew by 11 percent to N2.1 trillion as at December 2017, largely on the back of currency devaluation in the second half of 2016″ he added.
On the 65 kobo per share total dividend payment for 2017 financial year, he told shareholders that the bank was pursuing a residual dividend policy to ensure its sustainability.
Wigwe thanked the shareholders for their support in the operations of the Access Bank and informed them of the plan to roll out the next five year strategic growth trajectory for the bank, to cover the period 2018-2022.
Key highlights of the 2016 full year report ended December 31, 2017 shows that pretax profit of the lender depreciated 11.4 percent to N80 billion from N90 billion recorded in the 2016 end.
Also, Access Bank reported post-tax profit in the review period declined 13.2 percent to N61.99 billion from N71.43 billion recorded a year ago.
Gross earnings increased from N381.32 billion in 2016 end to N459.07 billion in the review period of 2017, showing an increase of 20.4 percent, the lender in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
