Declares N84.8bn dividend for shareholders
Nigeria’s top tier lender, Zenith Bank Plc has announced a Profit After Tax (PAT) of N230.5 billion signifying a 5.2 percent increase from N208.84 billion recorded in 2019.
The company also announced a final dividend of N84.8 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020, translating to N2.70k for every share of 50k bringing the total dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2020, to N3k subject to appropriate withholding tax and upon approval will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at close of business on the 8th day of March 2021
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The annual report-December 31, 2020 made available by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed the bank recorded an increase of 5.2% in gross earnings to N696.5 billion and an increase in 5.2% Profit Before Tax N255.86 billion in 2020 from N243.29 billion in the financial year 2019.
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The interest income of the bank had increased by 1.2 percent to N420.81 billion compared to N415.56 billion which it made in the comparable period of 2019. The financials of the bank showed that despite the increase in its interest income, it was able to cut back on its interest expenses.
Zenith Bank had recorded a 276 percent increase in foreign currency revaluation gain which rose from N11.54 billion in 2019 to N43.44 billion in 2020, just as gains from trading activities in treasury bills and bonds rose to N121.68 billion at the end of the 2020 financial year from N117.79 billion in 2019.
Net interest income of the bank for the 2020 financial year stood at N299.68 billion compared to N148.53 billion in the comparable period of 2019 Its interest income had however declined by 18.4 percent to N121.13 billion from N148.53 billion recorded in 2019, as impairment loss on financial and non-financial instruments rose to N39.53 billion in 2020 from N24.03 billion.
Its operating and personnel expenses had however risen during the period as it spent N148.112 billion on its operation in 2020 compared to N129.45 billion it spent in 2019. The 2020 spending had buoyed by a 107.7 percent increase in spending on information technology. The bank had doubled investment in information technology in 2020 to N20.44 billion from N9.84 it spent in 2019.
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Meanwhile, the bank’s total assets as of December 31, 2020, stood at N8.48 trillion, a 33.7 percent improvement over N6.34 trillion it recorded as at the end of the 2019 financial year. Loans and advances to customers had also gone up by 20.4 percent to N2.77 trillion as against N2.30 trillion recorded in 2019 while customer deposits went up by 25.1 percent to N5.33 trillion compared to the 2019 figure N4.26 trillion.