Sterling Bank Plc posted net interest income growth of N47.53 billion for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2019.
The net interest income represented a growth of 19.3 per cent when compared with N39.83 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2018.
The bank in a statement in Lagos on Tuesday said that the double-digit net interest income growth was driven by 200 per cent growth in its retail and consumer loans portfolio.
It stated that Specta, the bank’s innovative digital lending platform, supported this growth with volumes averaging N8 billion per month, reaching over 40,000 individuals as at Q3, 2019.
Commenting on the financial performance, Mr Abubakar Suleiman, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, said that the performance was due to strategic decisions and investment in focus areas.
“Our performance continues to reflect positive results of strategic decisions and investments in our focus areas.
“We recorded significant improvement in transaction led revenue and our funding base riding on adoption of digital channels.
“Going into the final quarter, we will continue to take a customer-centric approach to achieving growth and enhance our digital capacity to further support the business, while remaining focused on exceeding our performance in the previous year,” he said.
He said that the bank recorded a 7.7 per cent improvement in operating income of N65.49 billion during the period under review against N60.82 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.
Other financial highlights showed that customer deposit rose to N853.55 billion during the period under review against N760.6 billion in the corresponding period of 2018, an increase of 12.2 per cent.
Loans advanced to customers grew to N635.093 in 2019 from N621.017 billion in 2018, representing a growth of 2.3 percent.
In the same way, shareholders’ funds rose to N109.54 billion during the period under review in 2019 compared to N97.80 billion reported for the corresponding of 2018, representing a growth of 12 per cent.
Operating income after impairment rose by 1.3 per cent to N61.583 billion compared with N60.82 billion in September 2018.
Further analysis also showed that non-performing loans dropped to 7.4 per cent during the review period from 8.7 per cent in the corresponding period of 2018, representing an improvement of 14.6 per cent.
