Ecobank Transnational Inc.’s first-half profit climbed 26 percent as Africa’s most geographically diverse lender maintained its efforts to curb expenses.
Net income for the six months through June rose to $244 million from $194 million a year earlier, the Lome, Togo-based bank, said in a statement published on the Nigerian Stock Exchange website late Wednesday.
Revenue was little changed at $1.07 billion. “We continued to drive cost efficiencies in our busi- nesses,” CEO Albert Essien, said in the statement.
Essien steps down in September and will be replaced by Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of Citigroup Inc. in sub-Saharan Africa.
The pan-African lender has shares traded in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and operates in 36 countries in the continent.
Its cost-to- income ratio improved to 62.5 percent in the first half from 68.1 percent a year earlier.
Total assets dropped 0.4 percent to $23.3 billion.
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