The managing director/ chief executive officer, Fidelity Bank Nneka Onyeali Ikpe has disclosed that the lender will continue to rely on a business model that works. The bank’s chief executive stated this on the crest of the submission of its unaudited quarter one, 2021 results to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, which showed that the new generation bank performed in key areas.
Onyeali-Ikpe said“We commenced the year showing impressive double-digit growth in profitability and improved performance across key efficiency indices whilst ensuring our business model continued to deliver strong positive results in line with our guidance for the 2021 financial year.
“In absolute terms, the increase in nominal interest rate came from foreign exchange related income, digital banking income and account maintenance charge among others.Net interest margin remained unchanged at 6.3 per cent compared to 2020 full year as the drop in average funding cost offset the decline in average yields on earning assets.”
“This led to 26.2 per cent decline in total interest expenses, which translated to 17.1 per cent increase in net interest income to N28.8 billion despite a 4.3 per cent increase in interest bearing liabilities.
“We refinanced our seven-year N30 billion Tier-II bonds issued in 2015 at 16.48 per cent p.a. with cheaper 10-year N41.2 billion tier II bonds priced at 8.5 per cent p.a., which led to a 61bpts drop in average borrowing cost to 4.5 per cent,” she said.
The DMB submitted its financial statement to the Nigerian Exchange, NSE which indicates that profit before tax leaped by 53.9 per cent to N10.134 billion from N6.583 billion compared to the same period in 2020.
Gross earnings increased by 7.7 per cent year-on-year to N55.1 billion, from N51 billion in the comparable quarter.
The results also show that Profit before tax grew by 54 per cent to N10 billion while profit after tax grew by 64 per cent to N9.6 billion. Net Assets grew by nine per cent from N242 billion to N264 billion, according to the result submitted to the NSE. .
