Fidelity Bank records impressive Q3 results, pays N50bn intervention funds
Details of the Q3 results of Fidelity Bank Nigeria Plc have demonstrated improvement in the bank’s financial performance for the year 2020.
According to the results released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the bank’s profit before tax (PBT) rose by 3.6% to N21.3bn (about $55m), while its profit after tax (PAT) rose by 7% from N19 billion to N20.4 billion in the period under review.
Fidelity Bank’s gross earnings, however, experienced a marginal drop by 3.7%, from N161.1 billion in 2019 to N155 billion in 2020.
In a statement, the Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank Plc, Nnamdi Okonkwo, noted that the bank’s nine-month results reflect its resilient business model, particularly in a very challenging operating environment.
“We worked closely with our customers to gradually recover from the economic impact of the pandemic and the attendant effect of the lockdown,” he said.
Okonkwo attributed the drop in gross earnings to the decline in interest and similar income caused by lower yields and drop in fee income.
He said: “Net fee income declined by N1.3 billion largely due to a reduction in foreign exchange-related income on account of the revaluation gains recorded in the first half of 2020.
“Digital banking, however, continued to gain traction as we now have 52.3 per cent of our customers enrolled on the mobile/internet banking products from 47.4 per cent in 2019 full year and 88.2 per cent of customer-induced transactions are done on digital platforms.”
He continued: “Similarly, digital banking income increased by 20 per cent quarter on quarter due to improved adoption by customers and new services migrated to our digital channels.”
Fidelity Bank has over the years implemented a retail digital banking strategy and that has continued to deliver, with the bank on course to achieving the seventh consecutive year of double digits growth.
Okonkwo also disclosed that “the growth in savings deposits accounted for 40.2 per cent of the total growth in customer deposits”, explaining that “savings deposits now represent 25.7 per cent of total deposits, up from 22.3 per cent in 2019”.
The bank’s boss stated that their customer deposits, net loans and total assets grew in double digits.
“Our total assets grew by 21 per cent from N2.1 trillion in 2019 to N2.5 trillion; customer deposit was up by 22.3 per cent, from N1.23 trillion to N1.5 trillion, whilst net loans rose by 12 per cent from N1.12 trillion to N1.27 trillion, to cap the good outing by the top lender,” he said.
He further disclosed that the bank has disbursed over N50 billion in intervention funds to customers in the last three months, especially in key sectors of the economy, following the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
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