Unity Bank’s agribusiness, retail lifts profit by 96%

Unity Bank Plc has stated that its increasing focus on areas of strength, especially agribusiness and retail banking, has impacted positively its bottom line, as it recorded 96 per cent rise in Profit Before Tax (PBT) for the half-year ended June 2019.

Specifically, the bank’s unaudited half-year result showed growth in profitability by over 96 per cent to N1.052 billion as against N536 million in the corresponding period of 2018.
 
A review of the bank’s performance also showed significant improvements across key financial metrics such as the earnings assets and gross loans.

According to the bank, the performance is supported by the bank’s effort to improve asset utilization, which reduced the need for asset acquisition, thus translating to lower depreciation and amortisation expenses, with this cost declining by 27 per cent from the comparative period of 2018.

The bank also increased its focus on its Agribusiness through its partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
 
Further strategic initiatives adopted by the bank include the implementation of various staff optimization strategies, which led to marginal decline of nine per cent in personnel costs. Staff allocation was also better streamlined to leverage capacity for improved productivity.

The Managing Director, Mrs. Tomi Somefun, said: “The bank has started to reap from its multiple streams of income, which include asset creation, investments, and trade activities amongst others.”

She added that the bank’s focus on its areas of strength- agribusiness and retail, automation of processes with the aim of cutting off wasteful expenditure and constant improvement of service delivery through the use of internally developed solutions saved huge sums in cost. Unity Bank Plc has stated that its increasing focus on areas of strength, especially agribusiness and retail banking, has impacted positively its bottom line, as it recorded 96 per cent rise in Profit Before Tax (PBT) for the half-year ended June 2019.

Specifically, the bank’s unaudited half-year result showed growth in profitability by over 96 per cent to N1.052 billion as against N536 million in the corresponding period of 2018.
 
A review of the bank’s performance also showed significant improvements across key financial metrics such as the earnings assets and gross loans.
 
The bank recorded a quantum leap in its earning assets by 62 per cent thus leading to higher income and grew its gross loans by 456 per cent.
 
The bank explained that the increase was also boosted by an increase in securities (holdings of Treasury Bills and bonds), which led to a 23 per cent growth in interest income.

Similarly, in the period under review, gross earnings grew by 17 per cent, while operating expenses reduced by 20 per cent. Earnings per share improved by 66 per cent to 17.99 kobo for the period ended June 30, 2019, compared to 10.86 kobo in 2018.

According to the bank, the performance is supported by the bank’s effort to improve asset utilization, which reduced the need for asset acquisition, thus translating to lower depreciation and amortisation expenses, with this cost declining by 27 per cent from the comparative period of 2018.

The bank also increased its focus on its Agribusiness through its partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
 
Further strategic initiatives adopted by the bank include the implementation of various staff optimization strategies, which led to a marginal decline of nine per cent in personnel costs. Staff allocation was also better streamlined to leverage the capacity for improved productivity.

The Managing Director, Mrs. Tomi Somefun, said: “The bank has started to reap from its multiple streams of income, which include asset creation, investments, and trade activities amongst others.”

She added that the bank’s focus on its areas of strength- agribusiness and retail, automation of processes with the aim of cutting off wasteful expenditure and constant improvement of service delivery through the use of internally developed solutions saved huge sums in cost.