By Dipo Olowookere
The board of Access Holdings has surprised the company’s shareholders by increasing the final dividend payout for the 2022 financial year by almost 86 per cent, precisely 85.7 per cent.
Access Holdings is not too known to pay higher dividends to investors, unlike its peers, Zenith Bank and GTCO.
But in the audited results of the financial institution released on Thursday, the board proposed the payment of N1.30 as the final dividend compared with the 70 Kobo paid in the 2021 accounting year, bringing the total cash reward for the year under review to N1.50.
“The board of directors proposed a final dividend of N1.30 per ordinary share of 50 Kobo each on the 35,545,225,622 issued ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each payable to shareholders on the register of shareholding at the closure date. Withholding tax will be deducted at the time of payment,” a note from the statements said.
In another disclosure, the firm said the dividends would be paid to shareholders who have completed their e-dividend registration on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. The qualification date for the cash reward is Tuesday, May 9, 2023, and the Annual General Meeting (AGM) has been fixed for May 24.
Business Post reports that Access Holdings improved its gross earnings in the year to N1.4 trillion from N971.9 billion, as the net interest income jumped to N359.6 billion from N301.4 billion.
Also, the net fee and commission income improved in the period under consideration to N145.7 billion from N118.3 billion as a result of the increase in the fee and commission income.
However, the exposure of the company to debt securities in Ghana negatively impacted the pre-tax profit, which shed 5.0 per cent to close the year at N167.7 billion compared with the preceding year’s N176.6 billion, as the net profit went down by 5.0 per cent to N152.2 billion from N160.2 billion, with the earnings per share (EPS) down to N4.44 versus the N4.58 reported in FY 2021.
The expansion drive of the bank is yielding results as deposits from customers increased within one year to N9.3 trillion from N7.0 trillion in 2021.
