By Dipo Olowookere
The results of Zenith Bank Plc for the first half of 2021 have been released to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited. The financial statements were filed on Friday by the lender.
Though the gross earnings decreased in the period under consideration, the pre-tax profit moved up to N117.1 billion from N114.1 billion in the same period of last year.
After an income tax of N10.9 billion, slightly higher than the N10.3 billion paid a year ago, the company posted a profit after tax of N106.1 billion versus N103.8 billion recorded in HY’20.
A look at the top line of the statements showed that the gross earnings went down to N345.6 billion from N346.1 billion despite an improvement in the revenue generated from the Nigerian business. The drop was majorly due to a decline in the earnings from its banking operations in Africa and Europe.
It was observed by Business Post that the interest and similar income decreased in the first six months of this year to N203.9 billion from the N217.0 billion printed in the same time of last year, while the interest and similar expense went down to N44.0 billion from N59.6 billion. This pushed the net interest income higher to N159.9 billion from N157.4 billion.
In H1 2021, Zenith Bank said its net income on fees and commission stood at N47.7 billion compared with N33.5 billion, mainly buoyed by an increase in account maintenance fee (N14.5 billion in HY’21 versus N9.4 in HY’20), improvement in fees on electronic products (N17.1 billion versus N8.9 billion) and a few others.
A further look into the financial statements showed that trading gains rose to N59.3 billion from N58.8 billion, while other operating income went down to N19.8 billion from N24.2 billion.
The company said in the period under consideration, its personnel expenses were trimmed to N37.6 billion from N38.9 billion, but the operating expenses could not be tamed as they burst to N97.6 billion from N82.7 billion.
In line with its tradition, the board of the bank has proposed an interim dividend of 30 kobo to be paid on September 20, 2021, to shareholders whose names appear on the register of members as at the close of business on September 10, 2021.
Adedapo Adesanya