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Unity Bank Plc grew its assets base to N492.02billion representing a significant increase of 67.90% from the N293.05 billion of total assets value recorded in 2019. This is even as the agric-focused lender declared gross
earnings of N42.71 billion within the period under review.
A review of the Bank’s audited results for full year ended 31 December 2020, released
to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, showed that the Bank improved its bottom line
marginally as Profit After Tax, PAT stood at N2.09 billion. Profit Before Tax, PBT
closed at N2.22 billion, in a year that was defined by the unmitigated impact of global
pandemic characterized by disruptions in business activities and general downturn
that resulted in revenue/returns dip in major leading sectors globally.
The lender substantially grew its customers' deposit portfolio to N356.62 billion, up
from N257.69 billion in the corresponding period of 2019, representing a 38.4%
growth. This affirms positive market uptake of the Bank’s product offerings, as well
as the lender’s growing customer base to its recent aggressive push with agile
customer-centric products, which has played a role in deepening financial services
penetration especially to a wider world, underserved spectrum of the retail market.
Other major highlight of the audited financial statement relates to growth in its net
operating income which rose to N25.46 billion from N23.21 billion in the
corresponding period of 2019, representing a 9.71% increase. This is even as the net
interest income recorded a significant jump, as it rose by 7.60% to N17.75 billion
from N16.49 billion in the corresponding period of 2019. Earnings per Share closed
at 17.85 Kobo.
The Bank’s gross loans portfolio increased by 92.9% to N206.2 billion in December
2020 from N106.9 billion in December 2019. The Bank’s lending strategy was
specially tailored to support the nation’s food agenda. This had the added advantage
of improving food security across the country, providing employment to thousands of
youths and entrepreneurs, contributing to the conservation of FX stocks and
mitigating security challenges by ensuring adequate empowerment of citizens and
deepening skills acquisition across the value chain.
Commenting on the result, Unity Bank’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer,
Mrs. Tomi Somefun stated that the results showed the resilience of the Bank during
unprecedented times of uncertainties and our ability to innovate and focus on key
balance sheet items that will enable us maintain growth trajectory.
She further opined that: “Consequently, for the year under review, the opportunities
to significantly create more quality assets for the business, thought to have
sustainable impact, informed part of choices made and we have seen some
encouraging market uptake in this regard, apart from the benefits to the enterprise
bottom-line that have also started trickling in. Other key performance indicators
especially on the liability side of the business was equally not left out. The Bank
deployed new product features and augmentation supported by omni-channel, USSD
promotions and other channels to enhance services delivery efficiency, drive income
generation capacities and enhance steady balance sheet growth for the year”.
Looking ahead, Somefun stated: “we will latch on targeted strategies to deploy
significant investment in technology in order to ride the waves of the COVID-19
pandemic. On the back of this, the Bank focus on achieving major efficiency gains,
deepening its retail footprints and penetrating identified cluster market segments, as
bulwarks to tapping into various youth markets platforms, in addition to the mass
market would get further boost”.
While laying outlook for the future, the Unity Bank’s Chief further stated: “The Bank
is also looking to consolidate on the gains from its core business areas and niche in
the agribusiness sector. The Bank has solidly financed over one million farmers over
the past three years. These farmers cut across several primary crop production such
as rice, maize, cotton, wheat, sorghum, etc coupled with their rich value chains, and
we hope to continue to expand on this as we play our part in driving the country’s
quest for self-sufficiency in food production.”
Analysts are of the view that having made appreciable impact in the agribusiness and
its value chains consistently, the market is excited that the current year performance
and different initiatives of the Bank show that the agribusiness is bankable not only
as a differential positioning but also for sustainable business performance and
profitability.