As more Nigerians adopt the electronic banking paradigm, commercial banks are reaping the benefits, with six banks earning N667.21 billion in fees from electronic banking transactions over the last five years.
Zenith Bank, Access Bank, FBN Holdings, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Fidelity Bank, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company generated this sum between 2016 and 2020. (GTCO). FBN made the most money out of the six banks, earning N177.58 billion in the last five years.
The financial conglomerate, which operates the country’s largest agent banking network, recently revealed its half-year statistics for 2021, revealing that electronic transactions generated a total revenue of around N28 billion in the first half of the year.
According to the bank’s unaudited financial statement for the first half of the year, revenue from e-banking climbed by 32.7 percent year on year, from N21.72 billion in the previous year’s similar period.
The bank earned N48.68 billion from electronic transactions last year, a little rise over the N48.03 billion it earned in 2019. The e-business segment’s revenue increased from N21.83 billion in 2016 to N24.98 billion in 2017 and N34.03 billion in 2018.
Over the last five years, UBA has earned the second-most money from e-banking transactions, at N175.67 billion. In 2017, the bank’s e-business revenue fell by more than half, to N20.92 billion, compared to N43.82 billion in 2016. In 2018, it generated N27.92 billion, while in 2019, it generated N38.76 billion. E-banking transactions brought UBA N44.24 billion last year.
Access Bank, which completed a big merger with Diamond Bank in 2019, saw a significant increase in its electronic transaction income, which totaled N127.6 billion during a five-year period.
Despite a dramatic drop in e-banking revenue to N5.79 billion in 2017 from N21.29 billion in 2016, Access Bank was able to increase its e-business revenue to N8.38 billion in 2018. Following the merger, the figure grew to N36.04 billion in 2019 and to N56.09 billion last year.
During the same time period, Zenith Bank generated N112.97 billion in e-banking transactions. Its e-business revenue increased from N10.68 billion in 2016 to N12.28 billion in 2017, N20.42 billion in 2018, and N42.51 billion in 2019. In 2020, however, the income from e-banking operations plummeted by more than 36%, to N27.07 billion.
In the same time span, Guaranty Trust (GTCO) made N56.7 billion, after earning N12.21 billion in 2016, N7.47 billion in 2017, N19.28 billion in 2018, N12 billion in 2019, and N16.16 billion in 2020. Over a five-year period, Fidelity Bank made N16.68 billion from e-business.