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Wema Bank records N1.7bn half year profit

By BusinessNews Staff on July 19, 2014

Wema Bank Plc said its half year unaudited financial results for the period ended June 30, 2014 showed that its profit before tax climbed by 266 per cent to N1.7 billion, as against the N464.7 million it was in June last year.

The bank’s total assets also climbed to N334.2 billion as at the period under review, as against the N330.9 billion recorded in December 2013.
Similarly, its loans and advances to customers as at June 2014 N115.5 billion, compared to the N98.6 billion it stood as at December 2013.

However, its customer deposits declined marginally to N216.3 billion as at June this year, from the N217.7 billion it stood as at December 2013, while its operating income was N12.5 billion, up 25 from the N10 billion it was as at June 2013.

In the same vein, Wema’s net interest income increased significantly by 81 per cent, to N9.7 billion as at June 2014, from N5.3 billion in the comparable period of 2013.

Wema Bank said the financial performance was a demonstration of the impact of the efficiency achieved in the last six months.

Commenting on the results, Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc, Segun Oloketuyi said: “We are pleased to announce that Wema Bank continued to demonstrate strong improvements in profitability and balance sheet efficiency in the first half of 2014.

“We continued the process of redeploying our resources into higher yielding assets while keeping a close eye on operating expenses.”

According to him, during the period, the bank secured trade lines from foreign correspondent banks and development finance institutions to support its trade finance, the real estate sector and small and medium scale enterprises’ lending.

“Project LEAP, our strategic transformation agenda, has continued to provide Wema Bank with efficiency gains, and we intend to maintain the pace of these improvements throughout the second half of 2014putting us on course to produce better performance and commensurate returns to shareholders by the end of the year.

“The goal is to continue our organic expansion programme and establish presence in areas that have significant growth potential, while making significant investments in alternative channels and diversifying the bank’s product offerings,” he explained.

Oloketuyi noted that with continued focus on good corporate governance and improved risk management practices, Wema Bank is well positioned to continue to increase its market share in the near term and deliver value to all stakeholders.

[This Day]

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