By Dipo Olowookere
The gross earnings of Fidelity Bank in the first half of 2020 rose to N10.5.8 billion from N103.7 billion in the same period of 2019.
This was as the interest income rose to N87.1 billion from N84.3 billion, while the interest expense reduced to N39.3 billion from N48.9 billion, leaving the net interest income at N48.3 billion in H1 2020 as against N36.9 billion in H2 2019.
In the results released on Thursday, the fee and commission income decreased to N9.5 billion from N13.1 billion, while the fee and commission expense increased to N2.8 billion from N2.4 billion.
In the period under consideration, the lender had N8.6 billion as other operating income compared with N4.8 billion in the corresponding period of 2019, while the personnel expenses jumped to N12.2 billion from N11.8 billion, with the other operating expenses rising to N31.6 billion from N29.2 billion.
However, the profit before tax increased to N12.0 billion from N9.8 billion, while the profit after tax increased to N11.3 billion from N8.5 billion, with the earnings per share closing at 39 kobo versus 29 kobo in H1 2019.
