By Dipo Olowookere
In the first six months of 2020, Access Bank reported a profit after tax of N81.0 billion, the financial statements of the company for the period ended June 30 have revealed.
However, this amount is slightly lower than the N81.9 billion achieved in the same period of 2019, the earnings filed to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) late Thursday further disclosed.
An analysis of the results by Business Post showed that the decline in the half-year post-tax profit was largely impacted by the Q2 2020 net profit, which was N42.6 billion versus N49.3 billion in Q2 2019.
For the pre-tax profit, the financial institution grew this to N73.3 billion from N73.0 billion in the first half of 2019.
The top line of the results showed that in the first half of this year, the lender recorded higher gross earnings of N396.7 billion as against N324.4 billion recorded in the same period of last year.
A further analysis indicated that the interest income slipped to N212.0 billion from N226.1 billion, while the interest expense rose to N120.5 billion from N117.8 billion, with the net interest income at N126.2 billion versus N155.2 billion and a net interest income after impairment charges of N109.7 billion in contrast to N150.3 billion in H1 2019.
The fee and commission income increased to N51.8 billion from N41.9 billion, while the fee and commission expense increased to N11.2 billion from N4.3 billion, with the net fee and commission income closing at N41.0 billion as at June 30, 2020, compared with N37.5 billion as at June 30, 2019.
The bank also said it spent N36.3 billion on its personnel, higher than N31.3 billion in the same period of 2019 and this was because of the increase in the wages and salaries in the first six months of this year.
Meanwhile, the board of Access Bank has announced a cash reward to its shareholders for the first half of the year.
In the financial statements, the lender said investors will get 25 kobo per share as interim dividend to be paid on Monday, September 28, 2020, only to those whose names appear on the register of members at the close of business on Thursday, September 17, 2020, and who have completed the e-dividend registration and have mandated the registrar, United Securities Limited, to pay their dividends directly into their bank accounts.
