By Dipo Olowookere
The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc on Friday, August 30, 2019 released its financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2019.
The results, posted on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showed improvement in the profit before tax by 21.0 percent in the first half of this year. According to the lender, its pre-tax profit closed as at June 30, 2019 at N70.3 billion in contrast to N58.1 billion as at June 30, 2018.
In addition, the board said the bank recorded a profit after tax of N56.7 billion in the period under review, higher than N43.8 billion achieved in the same period of last year, representing a 29.5 percent growth.
However, the net interest income of the lender did not have it good in H1 2019 as it depreciated marginally by 0.9 percent to N110.1 billion from N111.1 billion, while the net fee and commission income increased to N36.1 billion from N32.6 billion.
This was influenced by the improvement in the fees and commission income netted by the bank in H1 2019, which stood at N52.3 billion, higher than N45.9 billion achieved in H1 2018. But the fees and commission expense increased to N16.3 billion from N13.3 billion.
In the period under review, the bank raked N32.8 billion from net trading and forex income, higher than N20.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2018, while other operating income went down to N3.7 billion from N4.3 billion, with employee benefit expenses gulping up N37.2 billion in H1 2019 against N35.2 billion in H1 2018.
Business Post reports that in the first six months of this year, the earnings per share (EPS) of UBA improved by 31.7 percent to N1.62k from N1.23k it was in the first six months of last year.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale