By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Chief executive officer of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Mr Emeka Emuwa, has expressed the willingness of the lender to continue to work hard to recover some of its bad loans.
Mr Emuwa made this disclosure while commenting on the financial statements of the bank released last week for the period ended June 30, 2018.
In the company’s earnings analysed by Business Post, the financial institution trimmed its non-performing loans (NPL) down to 10.8 percent from 14.9 percent as at March 31, 2018 and 19.8 percent as at December 31, 2017.
According to the results, the lender grew its gross earnings by 15.6 percent to N83.3 billion from N72.1 billion achieved in the corresponding period of last year.
This was mainly driven 9.8 percent rise in interest income and 36.9 percent growth in non-interest income to N62.2 billion and N21.1 billion respectively from N56.6 billion and N15.4 billion in the same period of last year.
For the profit before tax, this increased by 23.3 percent to N11.7 billion from N9.5 billion, while the profit after tax went up by 24.5 percent to N11.5 billion from N9.2 billion.
The bank’s chief executive attributed the growth recorded by the company during the period under review to efficiency and productivity drive.
“Across all our business lines, we witnessed strong underlying performance, translating into improved earnings.
“We will continue to focus on the recovery of non-performing loans.
“With the resolution in Q2 2018 of the large real estate exposure which was impaired in December 2017, the Group NPL ratio is down to 10.8 percent from 14.9 percent at March 31 2018 and 19.8 percent at December 31, 2017,” he said.
Mr Emuwa said the group would continue to demonstrate its ability to deliver strong results notwithstanding a competitive and challenging operating environment.
“In the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on productivity, leveraging our enhanced platform to deliver best-in-class services to our customers,” the banker said.
He added that the bank would take advantage of targeted opportunities across its business lines and geographies.
Also commenting, Union Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, Ms Oyinkan Adewale, said the group’s retained earnings moved from negative to positive position for the first time since 2012.
She said this eliminated a major technical impediment to the payment of dividends.
Ms Adewale said the group’s net interest margins improved from 7.9 per cent in the half year of 2017 to 8.2 per cent during the period under review.
Dipo Olowookere 
Aduragbemi Omiyale