Accion Microfinance Bank limited recorded increased Profit After Tax (PAT), which rose by 30 percent to N1.05 billion in the financial year ended December 2018 from N809.76 million in 2017.
The bank’s loan disbursements grew by 21.4 percent from N19.13 billion in 2017 to N23.33 billion in 2018. Its shareholders fund experienced an 18 percent growth from to N4.61 billion in 2018 as against the N3.91 billion realized in the previous year. The board and shareholders of the company at the meeting approved a dividend payment of 25k.
This was largely due to the resilience of the board, the people and on the strength of the bank’s diversified product offerings shaped by customer preferences.
Announcing the results at the 13th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 23rd May 2019, Patrick Akinwuntan, chairman he stated that despite the challenging business environment, the bank was able achieve feats and record successes in course of the year incorporating technological and electronic models to improve customer satisfaction.
He said, “2018 witnessed significant investments in our core banking system upgrade and in strengthening our capabilities to deepen financial inclusion leveraging on digital and communication technology”.
Furthermore the company was able to pass the CBN benchmark of 2 billion in 2018, according to the chairman of the bank.
Speaking on the company’s market success, he said “our total number of accounts also grew significantly from 282,057 to 406,807 representing a 44.2 percent increase, our borrowing clients grew marginally by 16 percent from 39,036 in 2017 to 45,151 in 2018 while our saving clients grew from 166,795 to 253,523 in 2018 representing a 52 percent growth” “We continue to actively manage our capital base to cover risk inherent in our business, closing at a strong capital adequacy ratio of 50 percent as at December 2018 as against the regulatory requirement of 10 percent”
The chairman also stated that the bank was able to surpass the 2 billion capital requirements for national microfinance banks with over 40 percent, adding that the bank will have no problem meeting the N5 billion upgrade before the stipulated time.
Taiwo Joda, managing director/CEO of the bank, disclosed that the bank had incorporated various E-channels to improve customer satisfaction including USSD codes, ATM cards and POS devices which were received warmly as 72,768 clients were owners and users of the devices by December 2018.
“We increased our outlets from 62 in 2017 to 80 during the year with new outlets in 11 states including Ondo, Edo, Awka Ibom FCT and others”, Joda said.
Akinwuntan disclosed that in compliance with the corporate governance practise, the 13th AGM of the company will mark his last meeting as chairman of the board as his tenure will be over soon as the chairman of the board but he added that plans are on-going to ensure an orderly succession as well as a smooth transition for another chairman to come on board whose identity will be disclosed at a later date.
Hope Moses-Ashike & Gbemi Faminu
