Interest income boost lifts UBA’s nine-month profit to record N116 billion

United Bank for Africa (UBA)’s profit for the nine-month period from January through September hit its peak level ever this year, catapulted by reasonable growth in interest income, its financial statements showed Monday.

The lender reported N420.2 billion in interest income, equivalent to an improvement of 22.3 per cent relative to a year ago.

Boost for revenue also came from net fee and commission income, which advanced from N67.9 billion to N82.9 billion, with income from electronic banking providing over a third of that sum.

UBA, backed by Tony Elumelu, now has Oliver Alawuba as its chief following the departure of Kennedy Uzoka who exited the position in August. The lender, one of Nigeria’s biggest five, has footprints in twenty markets on the continent and a customer base in excess of 27 million.

It made an allowance of N13.6 billion, more than twice the sum for the same period of last year, to cover loans whose chances of being repaid has been marred by default.

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Last week, New York-based global credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service listed UBA among nine Nigerian banks marked for downgrade on long-term deposit ratings and long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings as Nigeria’s current forex crunch casts gloom on the banks’ ability to meet their foreign currency obligations.

UBA committed N163.4 billion to other operating expenses in contrast to N123.2 billion one year prior. The major pressure point here was its spending on fuel, repairs and maintenance which, besides being the biggest component of this expenditure category, soared 78.6 per cent year on year.

Pre-tax profit enlarged 12.3 per cent to N138.5 billion, while net profit jumped to N116 billion from N104.6 billion.

The lender’s total assets for the period were estimated at N9.3 trillion, 9.1 per cent stronger than their value as of the end of December 2021.

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