By Dipo Olowookere
Tier-two Nigerian lender, Fidelity Bank Plc, put up an impressive performance in the 2019 financial year, its financial statements for the year has revealed.
The financial institution, in the results, grew its gross earnings for the year by 15 percent to N217.3 billion from N188.9 billion, while the net interest income rose to N82.2 billion from N73.4 billion.
A brief analysis of the financial position of the company led by Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo showed that the net interest income after credit loss expense stood at N87.5 billion in contrast to N69.1 billion achieved in 2018 full year.
Also, the fee and commission income improved to N25.3 billion from N20.4 billion, while the fee and commission expense rose to N5.3 billion from N3.4 billion.
However, the other operating income reduced to N7.9 billion from N11.1 billion just as personnel expenses were pruned to N23.7 billion from N23.9 billion, with other operating expenses rising to N51.6 billion from N42.0 billion.
A look at the bottom-line of the results by Business Post indicated that profit before tax increased to N32.4 billion in the period under from N25.1 billion in the corresponding period of 2018, while the profit after tax went up by 29 percent to N29.5 billion from N22.9 billion, with the earnings per share rising to N1.02 from 79 kobo.
For the fourth quarter results, the earnings improved to N55.9 billion from N50.1 billion, while the net interest income jumped to N23.9 billion from N15.2 billion, with the fee and commission income appreciating to N6.1 billion from N5.3 billion and the fee and commission expense jumping to N1.5 billion from N736 million in Q4 2018.
Other operating income significantly dropped in the last quarter of 2019 to N1.2 billion from N7.6 billion, while personnel costs went down to N6.7 billion from N7.2 billion, with other operating costs rising to N14.7 billion from N11.8 billion.
PBT closed at N9.4 billion in Q4 2019 versus N5.0 billion in Q4 2018, while PAT increased to N8.0 billion from N5.1 billion, with the EPS at 28 kobo against N18 kobo in the same quarter of 2018.
In the 2019 fiscal year, Fidelity Bank said the deposits from customers rose to N1.2 trillion from N979.4 billion.
