Skye Bank, Ecobank profit rise

Skye Bank’s first-half pretax profit rose 47.4 percent to 10.71 billion naira while Ecobank’s gross earnings climbed to 211.32 billion naira in the period to end-June from 175.05 billion naira a year ago.

Skye Bank Gross earnings climbed 33.4 percent to 85.20 billion naira during the six month period to June 30, the bank said in a filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange and Ecobank posted a 47.4 percent jump in half year pretax profit to 61.41 billion naira ($309 million) versus the same period a year ago, the Pan-African banking group said on Thursday.

“We continued to drive cost efficiencies in our businesses and our cost-income ratio improved to 62.5 percent compared to 68.1 percent in the previous year,” Albert Essien, Ecobank’s chief executive officer said in a statement.

REUTERS