Fidelity Bank declares N9.04bn profit in half year 2017

Fidelity Bank has declared a strong financial performance in the first half of 2017, posting impressive growth in profits, gross earnings and other indices, with after tax hitting N9.04 billion for the six months period ended June 30, 2017.

Details of the audited results, released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday showed that gross earnings rose by 22.1 per cent from N70.3billion in H1 2016 to N85.8 billion for the corresponding period at June 30, 2017.

The growth in Gross Earnings was driven primarily by a 27.8% increase in interest income and a 0.7 percent growth in net fee income to N11.2 billion.

Similarly profits surged by 66.7 percent from N6.1 billion in 2016 to N10.2 billion, just as it recorded growth in operating income, total asset, equity, operational income and other performance indices in the period under review.

Total deposits decreased by 4.0% to N761.1 billion in June 2017 from N793.0 billion in December 2016, however low cost deposits continued to account for over 75% of total deposits.

Other regulatory ratios remained above the required thresholds with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) improving to 18.4% in H1 2017.

Nnamdi Okonkwo, MD/CEO of Fidelity Bank Plc, commenting on the results, stated that: “Our strong performance in H1 2017 is a testament to the disciplined execution of our medium term strategy which focused on deepening our market share in the SME, Retail and Digital Banking space whilst simultaneously implementing various process improvement initiatives to reduce our cost to serve.

“We are pleased with our audited financial performance which showed solid growth in our revenue lines and a corresponding decline in our cost profile.”