Unity Bank records N78.8bn gross earnings in 2015

Unity Bank Plc has announced its audited financial result for the year ended Dec 31^st, 2015, posting gross earnings of N78.8 billion and a Profit After Tax (PAT) of N4.6 billion compared to gross earnings of N77 billion and PAT of N10.6bn in the year 2014.

The 2015 performance was achieved in spite of the challenging operating environment characterized by a continued lull in the economic activities in the country as well as major regulatory headwinds that impacted earnings during the year especially the Treasury Single Account.

The Bank’s performance is attributed to its repositioning strategy, in which, its assets were critically stressed-tested resulting in major impairment charges of N27 billion for 2015 as against N17 billion in 2014 representing a growth of N10 billion on asset charge over the previous year 2014.

The new management inherited huge legacy NPLs from the general commerce and manufacturing subsectors and believes that the impairment charge in Year 2015 was necessary in order to give new breath of life to the institution.

The enormous tasks embarked upon by the new management is to position the Bank for proper clean-up and de-risking of its balance sheet, thus paving way for sustainable business in its overall transformation initiatives.

 The Bank also grew its assets by 7 percent from N413 billion in 2014 to N443 billion in 2015, amid shrinking economic indicators, measurement and regulatory policies that affected deposit portfolio during the year under review.

Tomi Somefun, managing director/CEO of Unity Bank Plc, While commenting on the result noted that “with the Bank’s repositioning efforts and consistent focus to tap into the emerging opportunities in the enlarged economic space within Nigeria, Unity Bank is poised to deliver quality banking service to emerging sectors in Retail/SME, commercial and the agricultural value chain. The Bank is building strong infrastructure for retail banking and attracting youths for its sustainable banking business by developing customer-centric products to meet the needs of its esteemed customers and build new clientele base. With the Bank’s capital raising exercise, the year ahead is bright as the effects of the on-going transformation initiatives will surely consolidate  Unity Bank as “a retail bank of choice”,  culminating in superior financial performance and values to all stakeholders”.

The Bank relocated its head office to Lagos from Abuja in March 2016. The benefits of relocation are beginning to trickle in with enormous positive impacts felt by the business nationwide.

The bank is now in a better position to tap into the core commercial hub of Lagos by leveraging on the huge retail spin-offs/opportunities and harness the diverse business potentials provided by population, port and patents for excellent service delivery to its esteemed customers.

The bank has started to witness increased businesses from the corporate, commercial and retail segments of the market with a strong resurgence.

No doubt, subsequent quarterly earnings that will delight stakeholders will improve considerably, given the level of strategic focus and attention provided by the new board and management of Unity Bank.

A vital part of the transformation in Unity Bank has seen the institution also roll out efficient cost containment initiatives and structural changes to drive value creation in all aspects of its operations. Higher returns are strongly anticipated as the Bank remains consistent and delivers more innovative banking products and services to customers through its 240 branches spread across all six  geo-political zones of Nigeria.

Unity Bank has commenced arrangements to raise additional capital to support its growth initiative, provide efficient banking services and increase lending to the real sector to meet the growing demands of the Nigeria banking public.  The capital raising exercise will also enable the Bank to fully pursue its planned growth trajectory especially in Agriculture financing, SMEs, rural economy and overall financial inclusion schemes already outlined. The Bank plans to upgrade its Information Technology architecture and infrastructure, improve retail banking channels and increase service delivery.