By Dipo Olowookere
Unity Bank Plc on Friday announced its financial statements for the first quarter of the year ended March 31, 2019.
The financial institution said during the period under review, its gross income jumped to N10.1 billion from N8.8 billion, with the interest and similar income appreciating to N8.5 billion from N7.7 billion.
However, the net interest income depreciated in the period under review to N3.6 billion from N4.3 billion on the back of the 45 percent increase in the interest and similar expense, which ended at N4.9 billion in Q1 2019 versus N3.4 billion in Q1 2018.
But there was a considerable improvement in the fee and commission income, which closed at N385.9 million in the first quarter of this year against N352.3 million in the first quarter of last year.
Also, the net trading income significantly increased by 1627 percent to N318.9 million from N18.5 million, while the other operating income rose to N762.4 million from N682.3 million.
Unity Bank said its personnel expenses dropped by 5 percent to N2.4 billion from N2.5 billion, while the other operating expenses depreciated to N1.8 billion from N2 billion, with the total operating expenses going down by 8 percent to N4.5 billion from N4.9 billion.
At the close of the quarter being reviewed, the profit before tax gained 4 percent to settle at N505.3 million against N485.4 million in the corresponding quarter of last year, while the profit after tax grew to N464.9 million from N446.6 million.
NOTE: We apologise for the error in our former headline, which put the PAT at N465bn instead of N465m.
