Access Bank reports N16.2bn profit

ACCESS Bank has reported a profit before tax (PBT) of N16.2 billion in its 12 months ended December 2010. It also concluded plans to pay 50 kobo per share to its shareholders.

A further breakdown put the gross earnings at N91.1 billion during the period; Loans up by 16 per cent to N456 billion; deposits up by 15 per cent to N509.6 billion; Loans to deposits at 88.3 per cent; capital adequacy at 26.52 per cent; and Liquidity Ratio of 36.91 liquidity.

Speaking from the bank’s headquarters in Lagos, Group Chief Executive, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said: “The macro prudential initiatives instituted by the Central Bank of Nigeria to stimulate the Nigerian economy towards the path of sustainable growth and to ensure recovery of the Nigerian banking sector had provided a launch pad for banks with strong fundamentals to grow their business profitably.”

He pointed out that the report of 2010 placed the bank among the leaders in the Nigerian banking industry.

Also commenting on the performance of the bank’s strategic segments, Group Deputy Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe,  said “I am pleased that we almost doubled our gross earnings from commercial banking business in the financial year ended 2010. This, combined with successful efforts to recover provisioned assets, ensured the segment returned to strong profitability.”

He explained that the treasury business contributed strongly to bottom line profits.

“We see tremendous opportunities in our retail banking segment and have made significant investments around personnel, risk management capacity, and product development all geared towards an aggressive retail expansion drive in 2011,” he said.

It would be recalled that Access Bank pioneers adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Nigeria.  It wins the award of most active Global Trade Finance Programme (GTFP) issuing Bank in Africa.

Source : Tribune