March 15, 2019
By Paschal Ijeh InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria’s tier one (1) lender, Access Bank Plc said on Friday its post-tax profit for the period ended December 31, 2018 surged 58.1 percent to N94.98 billion from N60.08 billion recorded a year ago.
In the same vein, pretax profit increased 132.0 percent to N103.18 billion from N78.16 declared the same period 2017.
Gross earnings of Access Bank increased from N459.07 billion in 2017 end to N528.74 billion in the review period of 2018, showing an increase of 15.2 percent, the lender in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Access Bank proposed a final dividend 0.25 kobo per share added to an interim dividend of 25 kobo for the half year ended June 30, 2018, representing a total dividend of 50 kobo.
Qualification and closure date has been scheduled for April 11 and April 12, 2019, while payment date is scheduled for April 25, 2019.
Commenting on the Bank’s performance during the period, group managing director/CEO, Herbert Wigwe said in a statement, “2018 marked a significant year of progress for the Bank amidst an unfavourable macro climate. We made solid progress throughout 2018 in line with our 2018-2022 five-year strategy, and we remain committed to the achievement of our strategic imperatives going forward; as we continue to invest in our people and technology in order to improve operational efficiency and service touch points with earnings growth in 2019.”
According to him, the contribution of the Bank’s subsidiaries to Group profits grew 116% to ₦27.9 billion, underlined by the effective implementation of overall strategy.
“In pursuit of our vision to be one of the leading Banks in Nigeria, we took accelerated strides in the last quarter of the year towards achieving our overall retail strategy. The merger with Diamond Bank will enable us to fully entrench ourselves in the retail market with a view to lowering our funding cost. This transaction is anticipated to be completed by April 2019, resulting in the creation of an enlarged, efficient and digitally led tier 1 retail banking franchise” he stated.
Shares of Access Bank at the close of the session’s trading on the Nigerian bourse dropped 2.52 percent to N5.80 per share from N5.95 traded the previous session; losing 0.15 kobo per share.
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