Wema Bank Plc has released its unaudited half-year financial results, revealing that its pre-tax profit has increased to N4.3 billion. Mr. Ademola Adebise, the company’s Managing Director, stated of the results, “We are pleased to release our results for the first half of the year.” Our performance reflects the organization’s attitude of resilience, as we have successfully recovered from the covid-impacted performance of the same period in 2020.
“We expect a stronger performance for the full year of 2021 as the economy fully opens up. The bank will maintain its strong focus on the digital business in the second half of 2021, pushing for even more gains in customer acquisition, consumer lending, and transaction volumes, while on the commercial side, we will continue to aggressively grow our commercial lending business alongside trade and other revenue lines.”
Mr. Emeka Obiagwu was recently appointed as an Executive Director of the bank, while Prince Olusegun Adesegun and Adeyemi Adefarakan were named as non-Executive Directors.
Tunde Mabawonku, the bank’s Chief Finance Strategy Officer, said, “We are delighted to announce the bank’s H1 2021 results.” Despite the adverse macroeconomic climate created by the COVID-19 epidemic, the performance indicates an increase in key financial metrics.”
Wema Bank’s profit before tax (PBT) increased by 149% year on year (YoY) to N4.3 billion in H1 2021; gross earnings increased by 4.94 percent y-o-y to N39.82 billion (H1 2020: N37.95billion). Due to a 112.6 percent increase in credit-related fees, a 151.5 percent increase in management fees, and a 147.7% increase in fees on financial guarantees, net fee and commission income climbed by 71.7 percent y-o-y to N5.40 billion (H1 2020: N3.1 billion).
“The key measure of success for us is growth in customers and customer activity – and we are glad to report strong growth here,” Mabawonku says. Total liabilities increased by 4.9 percent to N953.9 billion in H1 2021 (H1 2020: N909.2 billion), owing to a 0.5 percent increase in client deposits to N808.8 billion in H1 2021. (FY 2020: N804.8 billion) The cost of capital has dropped to 5.3 percent from 6.4 percent in the first half of 2020. NPLs remained below 5%, at 3.55 percent, while Capital Adequacy, at 13.24 percent, is higher than the required requirement of 10%.