United Bank for Africa has recorded a significant uptick in its electronic banking income to reach its highest in five years.
Electronic banking income surged by 22 percent to N36.3 billion in the first half of 2022 from N29.6 billion in the same period last year.
Electronic banking income represents income taken on transactions processed via electronic channels such as ATM, POS, mobile banking as well as credit and debit card transactions while Trade transactions income entails one-off charges as related to letter of credits and other trade businesses which are excluded from those included in determining effective interest rates on those carried at amortized cost.
The bank’s profit jumped 16 percent to N70.3 billion, the highest in four years from N60.6 billion for the period ending June 2021.
Commenting on the result, Oliver Alawuba, UBA’s group managing director said, “our performance in the first half of the year 2022 is in line with our expectations as the group grew gross earnings by 17.8 percent, largely from double-digit growth in both net interest and non-interest income.”
“We have continued to leverage our customer-first philosophy to pursue the mission of providing superior value to our stakeholders. This is evident in the increase in low-cost customer deposits and strong growth of our payments and transaction banking,” Alawuba said.
The tier-1 bank’s net interest income grew by 20 percent to N177.4 billion from N148 billion in the first half of 2021.
“The group’s profitability increased by 12.6 percent to N85.7 billion, with double-digit growth recorded across our key income line. We recorded a decent 20 percent growth in our net interest income as we continued to moderate our cost of funds whilst improving yield on assets, thereby contributing to the strong 20 percent growth in operating income,” Alawuba noted.
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Also, the bank’s fees and commission income climbed 30 percent to N96.4 billion in June 2022 from N74.1 billion in June 2021.
Fee and commission expenses rose to N36.5 billion in the first half of 2022, up 29 percent from N28.3 billion in the first half of 2021.
E-Banking expenses surge 21 percent to N27.3 billion in the first half of 2022 from N22.5 billion in the same period of last year.
Net trading and foreign exchange income stood at N9.1 billion year on year.
Total assets grew 6 percent to N9 trillion in June 2022, coming from N8.5 trillion in June 2021.
Net cash generated from operating activities dropped to N478.1 billion, 12 percent from N546 billion in the first half of 2021.
Net cash used in investing activities recorded a negative N208.65 from negative N326.9 billion in the period under review.
Net cash used in financing activities recorded N92.6 billion from N182 billion negative cash flow year on year.
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year climbed 9 percent to N961 billion in first half 2022 from N879 billion in the same period of last year.
