Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A notable real estate lender in Nigeria, Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, has continued to show resilience despite the tough macroeconomic environment triggered by high energy costs and inflationary pressure.
Its financial performance revealed that in December 2023, its net profit improved by 11.79 per cent to N856.26 million from the N766.19 million achieved in December 2022.
Also, interest income surged by 49.27 per cent to N49.27 billion in the period under review from N4.83 billion in the previous year, though fees and commission income shrank by 83.15 per cent to N395.08 million.
It was observed that the bank was able to reduce costs to bolster efficiency as total operating expenses were trimmed by 1.70 per cent to N2.31 billion amid a challenging environment.
As for its Non-Performing Loans (NPLs), the risk management strategies put in place by the financial institution yielded meaningful results.
Over the past three years, Abbey Mortgage Bank has been able to reduce the NPLs, which justifies good asset quality in an industry where sector players are grappling with deteriorating asset quality.
The company has read the handwriting on the wall that the regulator will jerk up industry minimum capital requirements as it is ready for recapitalization.
“Abbey Mortgage Bank is already working towards that, to ensure that at every point in time, we are above whatever minimum capital requirement is. The last capital raise was in 2020 where we raised circa N3 billion,” the chief executive of Abbey Mortgage Bank, Mr Mobolaji Adewumi, said.
“According to the last review, we are already at eight per cent, which is far below what you will get from most mortgage banks.
“The CBN has said that the banks would have to recapitalize and we are expecting that this will not just affect the commercial banks, it will affect the microfinance banks and even the mortgage banks.
“Abbey Mortgage Bank is already working towards that, to ensure that at every point in time, we are above whatever the minimum capital requirement is. The last capital raise was in 2020 where we raised circa N3 billion,” he added.
