Fidelity Bank Plc has announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2020, showing resilience by posting growth in core operating profits, net revenue and other key financial indices.
It posted a 50.9 per cent growth in core operating profits from N29.8 billion in 2019 to N44.9 billion while net revenue increased by 15 per cent from N111.8 billion in 2019,
Customer deposit, which is a measure of consumer confidence, rose by 38.7 per cent from N1.225 trillion to N1.699 trillion while total assets grew by 30.5 per cent from N2.114 trillion in 2019 to N2.758 trillion.
However, due to increase in bank’s loan provisions to shield it from headwinds, profit before tax(PBT) dropped by 7.6 per cent to N28.1 billion from N30.4 billion in 2019.
Encouraged by the healthy results, the board of Fidelity Bank is proposing a N6.4 billion payout, which translates to 22 Kobo dividend per share to its shareholders. Commenting, Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, said: “We are pleased with our financial performance, which clearly showed the resilience of our business model as core operating profit increased by 50.9 per cent to N44.9 billion from N29.8 billion in 2019. We also saw a significant improvement in our efficiency indices as the cost-to-income ratio moderated downward to 65.1 per cent from 73.4 per cent in 2019.
However, PBT dropped by 7.6 per cent to N28.1BN as we proactively increased our provisions on risk assets to N16.9 billion from a net write-back of N0.6 billion in 2019.”
According to her, the bank “took a conservative stance in recognition of the impact of the global pandemic, which has redefined business risks and opportunities in the new normal.”
Onyeali-Ikpe expressed happiness with the progress of its digital banking play, stating that “over 52.8 per cent of customers are now enrolled on the bank’s mobile/internet banking compared to 47.4 per cent in 2019, while 88.4 per cent of our customers’ transactions were done on the digital platform products and more than 81 per cent of total transactions done on digital platforms.”
