Seven Nigerian banks post N54bn rise in profit despite COVID-19

FBN Holdings Plc and six other Nigerian banks saw their combined profit after tax increase by N54.02bn in the nine months ended September 30, 2020, despite the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The others are Access Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc.

FBN Holdings posted the biggest increase as its after-tax profit rose to N68.16bn in the nine months to September 2020, compared with N51.75bn in the same period of 2019.

It was followed by Access Bank, whose profit jumped to N102.30bn from N88.44bn, according to its unaudited financial statements obtained by MarketsReporters from the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Stanbic IBTC reported a profit of N66.16bn, compared to N55.55bn in 2019.

Zenith’s profit increased to N159.32bn from N150.72bn while that of FCMB rose to N13.90bn from N10.79bn.

Fidelity saw its profit rise to N20.41bn from N19.06bn while Unity Bank reported a profit of N1.57bn, up from N1.48bn in 2019.

On the other hand, the United Bank for Africa Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, and Wema Bank made less profits in the period under review than they reported last year.

UBA’s after-tax profit dropped to N77.13bn from N81.63bn while that of GTB fell to N142.28bn from N146.99bn.

Union Bank reported a profit of N15.07bn, compared with N15.19bn in 2019.

Sterling Bank saw its profit decline to N7.37bn from N7.58bn while that of Wema plunged to N2.64bn from N4.09bn.