UNION Bank of Nigeria Plc has posted a profit before tax of N11.7 billion for the first half of the year, up from N9.5 billion in the same period of 2017. The bank said its gross earnings rose by 16 percent to N83.3 billion from N72.1 billion in first half of 2017, driven by a 10 percent increase in interest income and 37 percent increase in non-interest income.

The bank, which announced its unaudited financial statements for the period ended June 30, 2018, said its interest income grew to N62.2 billion in the first half of 2018 from N56.6 billion in first half of 2017, while net interest income before impairment was up by 14 percent to N34.4 billion, driven by an improvement in net interest margins from 7.9 percent to 8.2 percent on the back of lower cost of funds.

According to Union Bank, its non-interest income increased by 37 percent to N21.1 billion from N15.4 billion in first half 2017, driven by enhanced treasury trading income, recoveries and 311 percent growth in alternate channel revenues.

The operating expenses of the bank  rose by 21 percent to N39.2 billion from N32.4 billion in first half of 2017, largely due to a 25 percent increase in regulatory levies from the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria as well as some one-off items.

The bank reported gross loans of N508.5 billion, down from N560.7 billion as of December 2017 due to successful recovery/collection efforts and the write-off of some fully provisioned non-performing loans.

Customer deposits was up by three percent to N826.7 billion from N802.4 billion as of December 2017, reflecting a 66 percent increase in foreign currency deposits and the optimisation of local currency deposit book towards low-cost deposits.

Commenting on the results, Emeka Emuwa, chief executive officer, Union Bank, said, “In the first half of the year, we have continued to see positive results from our efficiency and productivity drive. Across all our business lines, we witnessed strong underlying performance, translating into improved earnings.”

He said in the second half of the year, the group would continue to focus on productivity, leveraging enhanced platform to deliver best-in-class services to its customers and taking advantage of targeted opportunities across business lines and geographies.

– July 27, 2018 @ 09:15 GMT |

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