Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The board of FCMB Group Plc has proposed the payment of a 50 Kobo dividend for the 2023 financial year, Business Post reports.
The financial institution declared the cash reward to shareholders in its audited financial statements released to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited for the year ended December 31, 2023.
In the period under review, FCMB grew its deposits, loans, assets under management, revenue and earnings and improved its environmental, social, and corporate governance scorecard.
It posted a profit before tax of N104.4 billion, a 186 per cent year-on-year (YoY) higher than the N36.6 billion recorded in 2022.
The firm contributed to food security and import substitution in Nigeria by increasing lending to the agricultural sector by 38.4 per cent from N147.4 billion in 2022 to N204.3 billion in 2023.
In addition, the bank supported over 300,000 smallholder farmers, 56 per cent of whom were women in agriculture, in rural communities to support the sector.
Over $280 million of funding from DFI’s and donor agencies was raised during the year to support the attainment of sustainable development goals in critical sectors of the economy.
Leveraging its core banking business, it facilitated over $700 million and $100 million in export and remittance flows into Nigeria, respectively, as at December 2023.
In safeguarding the environment, the firm switched six additional branches of its retail and commercial banking subsidiary (First City Monument Bank Limited) from grid/diesel generators to solar power last year, taking the number of branches running on renewable energy to 160, which represents 78 per cent of total branches.
In addition, the lender secured funding of up to N13 billion from local development finance institutions for on-lending to customers requiring solar energy solutions to further support its commitment to driving renewable energy.
FCMB’s customer base grew by 15.6 per cent YoY from 10.9 million to 12.5 million for the period ended December 2023, whilst users of its mobile app that offers lending, wealth and payment solutions grew by 31 per cent YoY to 3.4 million.
Similarly, the bank’s agency banking network grew to over 164,000 agents. With an enlarged customer base, an expanded distribution platform, and the use of artificial intelligence to automate and optimise loan underwriting processes, the Group successfully disbursed over 1.5 million loans worth N100.8 billion to individuals, N14.4 billion to micro-enterprises and N177.9 billion to SMEs during the period.
Commenting on the results, the chief executive of FCMB Group Plc, Mr Ladi Balogun, said, “We continue to leverage our unique group structure to build a technology-driven ecosystem that is fostering inclusive and sustainable growth in the communities we serve.
“This strategy is enabling us to deliver robust performance in spite of the challenging domestic and global environment. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we believe this trend will be sustained and accompanied by improving efficiencies arising from greater scale and ongoing digitisation.”
