By Dipo Olowookere
A 19 percent decline was recorded in the net profit of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) in the first quarter of 2020, its financial statements have revealed.
The profit aftertax of the company went down to N24.7 billion from N30.6 billion in the corresponding period of last year. In the same vein, the profit before tax dropped to N33.0 billion from N37.1 billion.
An analysis of the financial statements of the lender by Business Post revealed that the gross earnings of the organisation decreased by 2 percent to N194.9 billion from N199.5 billion
However, the revenue increased by 2 percent to N143.7 billion from N140.5 billion, just as the interest income rose to N124.5 billion from N116.7 billion, with the interest expense decreasing to N47.9 billion from N54.3 billion and the net interest income growing by 23 percent to N76.6 billion from N62.4 billion.
In the first quarter of this year, the fee and commission income of Ecobank reduced to N38.5 billion from N43.0 billion, just as the fee and commission expense went down to N3.0 billion from N3.7 billion and the net trading income down to N29.4 billion from N34.8 billion, mainly as a result of decline in foreign exchange to N20.7 billion from N28.7 billion and decline in trading income on securities, which dell to N8.7 billion in Q1 of 2020 from N6.0 billion in Q1 of 2019..
Furthermore, the other operating income reduced to N2.2 billion from N4.0 billion, while non-interest income fell to N67.1 billion from N78.1 billion.
In the period under review, staff expenses gulped N43.3 billion, higher than N42.4 billion in the same time of 2019, while the operating expenses increased to N94.9 billion from N93.0 billion.
In the first three months of 2020, the deposits from customers of Ecobank increased by 5 percent year-to-date to N6.2 trillion from N5.9 trillion, just as loans and advances to customers marginally went up by 0.4 percent year-to-date to N3.40 trillion from 3.38 percent.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale