Ecobank’s annual profit falls 58% amid COVID-19

Ecobank Group posted a decline of 58 percent in its profit before tax in 2020, compared to the previous year.

The pan-African lender reported in its unaudited 2020 full-year results that its PBT fell to $171.3 million last year from $405.07 million in 2019 (down 55 percent to N65.5 billion).

Profit after tax was down 66 percent to $93.9 million (down 64 per cent to N35.9 billion).

Its gross earnings dropped to $2.17 billion (down two percent to N829 billion), while revenue rose by two percent to $1.65 billion (up seven percent to N630.3 billion).

The bank’s operating income before impairment losses increased by 10 per cent to $606.2 million (up 17 percent to N231.6 billion).

Its total assets rose by nine percent to $25.7 billion (up 19 percent to N10.27 trillion).

Loans and advances to customers were stable at $9.2 billion (up nine percent to N3.69 trillion.

Deposits from customers increased by 12 percent to $18.2 billion (up 23 percent to N7.30 trillion).

Ecobank said its capital and liquidity remained resilient despite unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As the world manages the fallout from a second wave of infections, the company continues to monitor the situation proactively and provides guidance and support to its subsidiaries as needed,” it said.

The bank said it worked closely with its credit customers to assess their liquidity and operational cash flow needs and offered different relief measures such as credit restructures and granting of moratoriums for customers having financial difficulty in meeting up their repayment obligations.

“In terms of reduced volume of economic activities, this has translated into lower revenue for some of our subsidiaries. In addition, regulators have restricted dividend payment from affiliates and management fees in some cases,” it added.