Task Of Sustaining FirstBank’s Pioneering Status

 Emerging from the ownership restructuring process, the premier bank also achieved a 30.3 per cent growth in gross earnings, posting N716.8 billion as against N550.3 billion recorded in the comparative year. Its non-interest revenue stood at N342.2 billion, up 106.4 per cent from N165.8 billion posted in the 2020 financial year.

Its operating income revenue margin grew from 42.5 per cent to 61.5 per cent, a 19-percentage point improvement. The performance in non-interest income may have demonstrated the bank’s increasing returns from investment in financial technology, including electronic payment systems.

The bank also improves in its deposit mobilisation drive with customers’ deposits improving by close to 20 per cent to N5.6 trillion. The bank says customer accounts have grown from about 10 million in 2015 to over 36 million (including digital wallets) with over 11.8 million issued cards and over 18.6 million active customers.

Its bottom line also performed above the industry average as profit before tax (PBT) rose by 77.9 per cent to N130.9 billion, up from 73.6 billion recorded last year. The profit after tax (PAT) also rose by 73.9 per cent Y/Y to 117.8 billion while operating expenses stood at N313.9 billion.

The quality of its asset is reflected in the reduction of its non-performing loan (NPL) from 7.7 to 6.1 per cent, a major leap towards achieving the five per cent regulatory threshold.

The bank’s capital adequacy ratio improved from 17 to 17.4 per cent while that of the holding company was 19.5 per cent. The holding’s book value per share also rose to 24.5. FirstBank has transitioned into a sustained growth phase and delivers performance commensurate with the size of our business and the capabilities of our people.

Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank Group, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, had said: “Following years of strategic restructuring of the bank’s balance sheet and operations, the commercial banking business is beginning to transition into a sustained growth phase delivering performance commensurate to the size of our business and capabilities of our people.”

Indeed, the half-year 2022 (H1 ’22) performance was even more resilient. Driven by the banking operation, the consolidated account recorded a 45 per cent growth in its profitability to N66 billion, from N45.2 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2021 (H1’21).

Hence profit after tax (PAT) grew by 48.6 per cent to N56.5 billion, from N38.1 billion recorded in the comparative period. Its profit was driven by 22.4 per cent growth in gross earnings, which soared to N359.2 billion, from N293.4 billion in H1’21.

As posited by Fitch, the quality of the bank’s balance sheet has continued to improve. For instance, the NPL ratio dropped to 5.4 per cent while impairment charges for losses to bad loans fell 18 per cent, from N26.7 billion in H1 ’21 to N21.7 billion in H1’22.

Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank commercial banking group, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan: attributed the turnaround in profitability to its ‘Quantum Profitability Leap’ agenda.