Our Years of Investments in Innovative Technology Yielding Results—Ecobank

By Dipo Olowookere

The chief executive of Ecobank Group, Mr Ade Ayeyemi, has expressed satisfaction with the performance of the financial institution, saying the group’s “years of consistent and disciplined management, decisive action, investments in innovative technology and people are producing tangible results.”

Speaking recently at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the lender in Abidjan, Côte d’ Ivoire, he stated that the first quarter results of the company for 2022 provided a clear confirmation of Ecobank Group’s continuing strong and sustained performance trajectory reinforcing its reliability and capacity to successfully deliver on its Africa-focused purpose and support for the continent’s economies, regardless of the prevailing challenges, declaring that, “We are steadfast in our determination to win for all our stakeholders.”

Commenting on the performance of the firm in 2021, he disclosed that “our scalable payments ecosystem endows us with low cost-to-serve and the readiness to facilitate the expected huge growth in payments and collections.”

“This, coupled with our intent to be the trade bank for sub-Saharan Africa, makes us a key player in helping Africa’s businesses and economies to maximise the huge opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” he added.

Also, the Chairman of Ecobank Group, Mr Alain Nkontchou, described the 2021 accounting year as “a transformational year for the group.”

“The board is pleased to be rewarding shareholders with a dividend for the first time since 2016. Our results show that we are maximising operational efficiencies and successfully transforming our business for sustainable long-term growth.

“As we continue to deliver on our strategic imperatives, we are firmly positioned as the ideal partner for households and businesses to grow and succeed, and to foster Africa’s economic development, while continuing to grow our revenues and value,” he noted.

At the gathering, shareholders applauded the group’s impressively strong performance in 2021, which was achieved despite the challenging environment. They also approved all the resolutions presented at the AGM, including the appropriation of profits, the renewal of the mandates of directors and the appointment of alternate auditors.

The group’s profit for the year was $357 million compared with $88 million in 2020, although the latter was adversely affected by a goodwill impairment charge of $164 million, with net revenues increasing by 4.6 per cent to $1.757 billion.

Ecobank is the leading pan-African bank with operations across 33 African countries, including Nigeria, where it operates as Ecobank Nigeria Limited.