Unity Bank Plc has announced a 67.90 per cent leap in its assets base from N293.05 billio to N492.02billion. According to the agric-focused lender, its gross earnings also grew to N42.71 billion. A review of the bank’s audited financials for full year ended December 31 2020 just released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the bank also improved its bottom line marginally as Profit After Tax (PAT) stood at N2.09 billion. Profit Before Tax (PBT) closed at N2.22 billion, in a year that was defined by the unmitigated impact of global pandemic, characterised by disruptions in business activities and general downturn that resulted in revenue/returns dip in major leading sectors globally.
The lender substantially grew its customers’ deposit portfolio to N356.62 billion, up from N257.69 billion in the corresponding period of 2019, representing a 38.4 per cent growth. This affirms positive market uptake of the bank’s product offerings, as well as the lender’s growing customer base to its recent aggressive push with agile customer-centric products, which has played a role in deepening financial services penetration especially to a wider world, underserved spectrum of the retail market.
Other major highlight of the audited financial statement relates to growth in its net operating income which rose to N25.46 billion from N23.21 billion in the corresponding period of 2019, representing a 9.71 per cent increase. This is even as the net interest income recorded a significant jump, as it rose by 7.60 per cent to N17.75 billion from N16.49 billion in the corresponding period of 2019. Earnings per share closed at 17.85. The bank’s gross loans portfolio increased by 92.9 per cent to N206.2 billion in December 2020 from N106.9 billion in December 2019. The bank’s lending strategy was specially tailored to support the nation’s food agenda.
This had the added advantage of improving food security across the country, providing employment to thousands of youths and entrepreneurs, contributing to the conservation of foreign exchange stocks and mitigating security challenges by ensuring adequate empowerment of citizens and deepening skills acquisition across the value chain.
