By Dipo Olowookere
Fidelity Bank is planning to reward its shareholders with an interim dividend of 10 Kobo for the half-year ended June 30, 2022, a disclosure from the financial institution has revealed.
The cash reward, according to the notice filed to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, is subject to appropriate withholding tax.
It will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the company’s register of members at the close of business on September 12, 2022, and then paid into their bank accounts on September 20, 2022.
The lender announced the payment of the 10 Kobo interim dividend after it released its financial statements for the period under consideration.
It was observed that the profit after tax of the firm improved by 20.7 per cent to N23.3 billion from the N19.3 billion reported in the same period of 2021, while the pre-tax profit increased by 21.9 per cent to N25.1 billion from N20.6 billion.
According to an analysis of the results, the gross earnings jumped to N154.8 billion from 2021’s half-year turnover of N112.3 billion as the net interest income expanded to N75.6 billion from N50.3 billion.
Business Post reports that the bank recorded N16.1 billion as fee and commission income in the first six months of this year compared with the N12.7 billion achieved in the same period of last year due to improvements across its key banking segments; retail, corporate and investment.
However, the lender could not cut down its personnel and other operating expenses as they went up significantly in the period under consideration.
Analysis showed that the personnel costs surged by 36.9 per cent to N15.2 billion from N11.1 billion, while the other operating expenses jumped by 56.7 per cent to N43.4 billion from N27.7 billion.
In the first half of the year, Fidelity Bank grew its deposits from customers to N2.3 trillion from N2.0 trillion as of December 31, 2021, while the loans disbursed to customers increased to N1.9 trillion from N1.7 trillion in FY 2021.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka