Ahead the the 6th Edition of the Guaranty Trust Company, GTCO Fashion Weekend coming up next month, the Group Managing Director, GMD of the financial giant, Segun Agbaje has disclosed that the bank is committed to helping indigenous small businesses to succeed.
The annual fashion fair, aimed at promoting local SME’s is expected to hold between November 11 and 12 in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
The Group’s chief executive stated this in his reaction to the release of its third quarter report to the Nigeria Exchange Limited, NGX and the London Stock Exchange, LSE, for the period ending September 30, 2023.
According to the report, the Group reports a profit before tax, PBT, of ₦433.2billion, representing an increase of 155.2 percent over ₦169.7billion recorded in the corresponding period ended September 2022.
Agbaje who stated that the commercial bank has shown, through the result, its resilience to the challenging business environment in the country, stressing that “going into the final quarter of the year, we will continue to leverage the strengths within our growing financial services ecosystem” to enhance customers and stakeholders’ experience.
Agbaje said; “Our 3rd Quarter performance underpins our strategic positioning as a leading Financial Holding Company and reaffirms our strong capabilities to successfully navigate the challenges in our operating environment. Going into the final quarter of the year, we will continue to leverage the strengths within our growing financial services ecosystem to improve our products and service offerings, enhance customer experience, and maximise shareholder value.
“We are proud of our work towards Promoting Enterprise across the African continent over the years and remain committed to helping indigenous small businesses thrive through our consumer-focused fairs.
“The 6th Edition of the GTCO Fashion Weekend is scheduled to hold in Lagos, Nigeria, on 11/12 November 2023, and will give entrepreneurs in the Nigerian fashion retail space a free-business platform to showcase their diverse talents and creativity to a global audience.”
Other details provided in the report indicate that the Group’s loan book (net) grew by 17.7 percent from ₦1.89trillion recorded as at December 2022 to ₦2.22trillion in September 2023, while deposit liabilities increased by 37.9 percent from ₦4.61trillion in December 2022 to ₦6.36trillion in September 2023.
The Group’s balance sheet remained well structured and resilient with total assets and shareholders’ funds closing at ₦8.6trillion and ₦1.3trillion, respectively. Full Impact Capital Adequacy Ratio, CAR, remained very strong, closing at 25.1 percent, while asset quality was sustained as IFRS 9 Stage 3 Loans improved to 3.8 percent in September 2023 from 5.2 percent December 2022, however, Cost of Risk, COR, closed at 4.1 percent from 0.6 percent in December 2022 owing to Management’s conservative stance on provisioning as macros worsened y-o-y, weighing negatively on the ECL variables.
