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Chinwendu Obienyi
Fidelity Bank Plc has delivered another impressive full year result, sustaining a sterling performance that has been witnessed by the lender in recent years.
The bank’s full year (FY) 2019 results released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), showed strong growth across key income and balance-sheet lines with gross earnings rising 14.0 per cent to N215.5 billion from N189.0 billion in 2018.
Profit before tax rose by 21.0 per cent to N30.4 billion compared with N25.1 billion recorded in the previous year.
Similarly, net profits surged 24 per cent from N22.9 billion from 2018 in 2018 to N28.4 billion in 2019.
Buoyed by this performance, the bank plans to pay a dividend of 20 kobo per share translating to N5.8 billion compared to the dividend of 11 kobo paid in 2018.
Commenting on the results, Fidelity Bank CEO, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, expressed delight at the performance, saying it was due to sustained trajectory in it’s market share driven by significant traction in the bank’s chosen business segments.
On Digital Banking, Okonkwo said the results were enhanced by new initiatives in the retail lending segment and the deepening of its existing digital products.
According to him “We now have 47.4 per cent of our customers enrolled on the mobile/internet banking products, 82.0 per cent of total transactions now done on digital platforms and 31.1 per cent of fee-based income now coming from our digital banking business”.
He further revealed that efforts aimed at strengthening its foothold of the retail market is yielding significant results with savings deposits rising 20.7 per cent to N275.2 billion, thereby making it the 6th consecutive year of double-digit growth.
“Savings deposits now accounts for about 22.5 per cent of total deposits, an attestation of our increasing market share in the retail segment” Okonkwo stated.
