Amidst the crippling impact of economic downturn in Nigeria that culminated in a recession four months ago, Trustbond Mortgage Bank Plc, one of the country’s frontline primary mortgage banks (PMBs), has increased its investment in the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) from N500 million to N1 billion.
Incidentally, the bank is one of the six mortgage institutions that were refinanced by NMRC a few months ago. Others are Stanbic IBTC, Sun Trust Mortgage, Homebase Mortgage, Imperial Mortgage Bank, etc.
The increased investment in the mortgage refinancing company, according to Trustbond, is a demonstration of its commitment to growing its business, adding that by this act, it has strategically doubled its capacity to refinance mortgages with NMRC.
Etiwe Uwa, chairman of the bank’s board of directors, who gave these hints in his speech at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos recently, also revealed that the bank had an impressive performance in its financials in the year ended December 31, 2015.
The bank’s gross earnings, the chairman said, increased by 35.14 percent to N1.141.69 billion, up from N844.83 million in the previous year, adding that the bank’s profit from continuing operations after taxation increased to N90.83 million, representing 429 percent increase from a loss of N27.62 million in 2014.
However, the bank recorded a loss of N8.78 million in the current year from discontinued operation of N69.17 million in 2014. Similarly, their profit after tax and other comprehensive income for the year under review declined to N26.78 million from N113.94 million in the previous year.
Though there was no dividend payout which did not go down well with some of the shareholders, especially the retirees among them, the year under review was not a bad one for the bank as its MD/CEO, Adeniyi Akinlusi, disclosed that the bank recorded total assets of N9.7 billion, representing 7 percent increase over the previous year.
“Customer deposits in 2015 amounted to N2.1 billion, representing 11.3 percent growth over the 2014 financial year despite the economic challenges,” the CEO added, assuring that as a financial services provider, “Trustbond is driving efforts towards a sustainable path in line with international best practices.”
Continuing, he said, “the company is pursuing the sustainable banking principles and aligning with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations as applicable.”
He noted that 2015 opened a window of opportunity for the mortgage industry in terms of capacity enhancement in view of the new liquidity support available to mortgage players following the commencement of operations by NMRC, which started actual disbursement of mortgage refinance to mortgage lenders within the year.
“During the year, Trustbond received its first tranche of disbursement of N268 million to 23 individual home owners across the states of the federation, thus becoming the second mortgage lender to refinance legacy mortgages with NMRC”, he said.
As an initiative of the mortgage banking association of Nigeria (MBAN), the federal ministry of finance, the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the World Bank/International Finance Corporation, NMRC is aimed to address the long-term funding constraints to the growth of the primary mortgage market while reducing the funding cost of residential mortgages and enhancing access to housing by Nigerians.
CHUKA UROKO
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