Zenith Bank Plc has announced its unaudited results for the period ended
30 September, 2019, with numbers that clearly demonstrates its market
dominance and leadership.
From the unaudited account which was presented to the Nigerian Stock
Exchange (NSE), gross earnings increased by 4% percent from N474,607
billion recorded in Q3 2018 to N491,268 billion in Q3 2019. Profit Before
Tax (PBT) grew by 5% from N167,307 billion in Q3 2018 to a record
N176,183 billion in Q3 2019. Also, profit after tax rose by 5% from
N144,179 billion in Q3 2018 to N150,723 billion in Q3 2019.
Despite a challenging macro-economic backdrop, the Group recorded a
significant growth in Non-Interest Income, expanding by 22% from N128.7
billion in Q3 2018 to N156.8 billion for the current period. Our platforms and
channels have been the enablers of this growth, with fees from electronic
products doubling to N35.3 billion from N17.6 billion in Q3 2018.
Our cost optimization strategies and aggressive retail banking drive are
yielding the desired effects as cost-to-income ratio declined from 51.2% in
Q3 2018 to 50.1% in Q3 2019 with Earnings Per Share (EPS) growing by
5% from N4.58 in Q3 2018 to N4.80 in Q3 2019.
Our retail and corporate banking franchises continued its momentum with
customers’ deposits growing by 7% to N3.95 trillion from N3.69 trillion
recorded as at December 2018, a reflection of increasing share of the
industry’s deposits and customers’ confidence in the Zenith brand. These
deposit acquisitions have directly contributed to our cost of funds improving
from 3.3% in Q3 2018 to 2.95% as at Q3 2019.
We have continued to deploy capital to creating viable risk assets with
gross loans and advances growing by 9% from N2.02 trillion as at
December 2018 to N2.2 trillion as at Q3 2019 across both the retail and
corporate segments. Our focus remains the search for bankable lending
opportunities to ensure the attainment of the minimum regulatory loan-to-
deposit ratio (LDR) of 65% by December 31, 2019 without compromising
our prudence.
Our robust risk management framework has ensured that non-performing
loans (NPL) ratio declined from 4.98% in December 2018 to 4.95% in the
current period. Our commitment to maintaining a shock-proof balance
sheet remains with liquidity and capital adequacy ratios at 63.8% and
23.8% respectively, both above regulatory thresholds.
In this final quarter of the year, we will sustain our competitiveness and
share of market in the corporate segment and build upon our digital
foundations to reinforce our retail banking initiatives.
As a testament to this superlative performance and in recognition of its
track record of excellent performance, the bank was recently named as the
Bank of the Year and the Best Bank in Retail Banking at the 2019
BusinessDay Banks’ and Other Financial Institutions Awards (BAFI
Awards).