Bank Charges Paid by Geregu Power Jump 366% to N71.7m

By Dipo Olowookere

The newly listed company on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, Geregu Power Plc, paid N71.7 million as bank charges in the 2021 fiscal year, its financial statements have revealed.

In the previous year, the power-generating firm paid N15.4 billion for the same purpose, indicating an increase of about 365.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Bank charges are fees collected by banking institutions for financial transactions, including cash deposits, withdrawals, alerts, stamp duties, and others.

Nigerians have complained bitterly about what they pay as bank charges. Several stakeholders have also asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to wade into the matter to encourage the use of commercial banks.

This loophole in the Nigerian banking sector gave rise to the birth of digital banks in the country, luring customers with zero fees and others.

In the 2021 financial year, Geregu Power incurred other expenses like N8.3 million for board meeting costs compared with N5.7 million in FY 2020, N7.5 million as audit fees versus N5.0 million in the preceding year, N43.7 million for PR, promotions and advertisement in contrast to the previous year’s N55.5 million, N281.1 million as transport, travel and entertainment costs versus N216.0 million in FY’21, among others.

In the year, according to the analysis of the results by Business Post, Geregu Power spent N1.3 billion on personnel costs in contrast to N1.2 billion in the previous year due to an increase in salaries, wages and allowances of its 128 employees.

A breakdown showed that the company had 120 employees in the preceding year. The addition came from the eight senior staff absorbed by the organisation, which increased its wage bill.

In the year under review, Geregu Power generated N71.0 billion as revenue compared with the N53.7 billion generated in the 2020 accounting year, with the sale of energy contributing N45.7 billion and capacity charge accounting for N25.3 billion.

Its pre-tax profit grew by 42.5 per cent to N29.5 billion from N20.7 billion, while the net profit improved by 40.1 per cent to N20.6 billion from N14.1 billion.