Uche Usim, Abuja
Jaiz Bank Plc, Nigeria’s premier non-interest commercial bank on Sunday released its first quarter gross earnings which stood at N2.59 billion as against N1.87 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2018.
Key extracts of the three-month report for the period ended March 31, 2019 already released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showed that gross earnings rose by 38.7 per cent while pre and post-tax profits jumped by 225.08 per cent and 244.19 per cent respectively. Earnings per share rose by 190 per cent.
The three-month report indicated that gross earnings rose to N2.59 billion in first quarter 2019 as Gross profit grew by 51.9 per cent increased from N1.39 billion to N2.11 billion. Profit before tax jumped from N146.57 million to N476.46 million. After taxes, net profit rose to N428.68 million in first quarter 2019 compared with N124.58 million in first quarter 2018. Consequently, earnings per share increased to 1.45 kobo in first quarter 2019 as against 0.50 kobo in corresponding period of 2018.
The Managing Director, Jaiz Bank Plc, Mr. Hassan Usman, said the 2018 results further demonstrated that the bank has the capacity to grow sustainably in line with its strategic vision of becoming the leading non-interest bank in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2022.
He assured that while maintaining steady focus on elements that contributed to improved performance in 2018, the bank shall work harder to optimise its potential in order to deliver better returns in 2019.
He tied the bank’s sterling performance to its continuous improvement in cost efficiency and risk management.
The first quarter performance further consolidated the growth trajectory of the alternative banking pioneer and raised strong prospect of Jaiz Bank substantially surpassing its full-year performance in 2018 in the current business year. The net profit in first quarter 2019 is more than half of the full-year net profit recorded in 2018.