The bank's net interest stood at N299.682 billion, up from N267.031 billion in 2019, while net fee and commission income was N79.332 billion as against N100.106 billion in 2019.
Impairment charges rose from N24.032 billion to N39.534 billion.
Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 5.2 per cent from N243.294 billion to N255.861 billion, just as profit after tax (PAT) rose by 10.4 per cent to N230.565 billion from N208.843 billion in 2019.
The board has proposed a final dividend of N2.70 per share, to bring the total dividend to N3.00 having paid an interim dividend before.
Loans and advances improved from N2.306 trillion to N2.779 trillion, while customers' deposits rose from N4.262 trillion to N5.339 trillion. Total assets rose from N6.347 trillion to N8.481 trillion in 2020.
Commenting on the results, analysts at
They said they had expected that the combination of a slowdown in business activities due to the pandemic and continual sterilisation of funds by the
"However, the bank was resilient during the period, with this positive performance ultimately propelled by the strong balance sheet management and much-reduced tax expense," they said.
"This expansion in NII, alongside the growth in net interest income, led to a 7.7 per cent increase in operating income to N511.89 billion," the analysts said.
They noted that operating expenses(OPEX) growth was moderate, as the bank continued to focus on cost management in the face of moderate gross earnings growth.
"Opex grew by 10.4 per cent to N256.03 billion, with the most pressure exerted by other operating expenses (+16.9 per cent to N102.76 billion) such as information technology (IT) and maintenance costs. Consequent to the Opex growth relative to operating income growth, the bank's cost-to-income ratio (ex-LLE) settled higher at 54.3 per cent (2019 50 per cent).
Also, profitability was stronger, with PBT settling 5.2 per cent higher. However, PAT was 10.4 per cent higher, on account of a 26.6 per cent decline in income tax expense," they said.
As a testament to the superlative performance and in recognition of its track record of excellent performance,
Also, the bank emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in
Similarly, the bank was recognised as
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