By Dipo Olowookere
In the first nine months of 2022, Access Holdings Plc improved its gross earnings by 30.9 per cent to N906.9 billion from the N693.1 billion recorded in the same period of 2021.
This was boosted by the higher revenue from its corporate and investment banking segment, as well as the commercial banking business.
In the financial statements released to the stock exchange, the company said it generated N497.5 billion from interest income, higher than the N395.1 billion achieved in the first nine months of last year, while the interest expense increased to N291.5 billion from N203.2 billion.
This left the net interest income at N280.5 billion versus N267.7 billion recorded as of September 30, 2021.
A look at the fee and commission income showed that it grew to N133.5 billion from N113.6 billion as a result of the higher earnings from credit-related fees and commissions, channels and other e-business income, commission on foreign currency denominated, commission on bills and letters of credit, and others.
As for the fee and commission expense, it rose by 38.3 billion from N24.8 billion due to a rise in bank and electronic transfer charges to N5.9 billion from N3.5 billion and an increase in e-banking expense to N32.4 billion from N21.3 billion.
However, the company suffered a shortfall in other operating income to N17.2 billion from N21.8 billion, driven by lower bad debt recovery, income from other investments, asset management, and cash management charges.
However, the income from net foreign exchange gain witnessed an 11.7 per cent improvement as it stood at N96.9 billion in Q3 2022 versus N86.8 billion in Q3 2021.
In the period under consideration, personnel expenses gulped N89.8 billion, in contrast to N71.7 billion in the corresponding period of last year because of higher pay for wages and salaries of workers, and others, as other operating expenses jumped to N254.3 billion from N188.8 billion.
As of September 30, 2022, Access Holdings’ profit before tax stood at N147.3 billion compared with N135.2 billion as of September 30, 2021, while the profit after tax was N137.0 billion versus N122.0 billion.
