By Sunday Ehigiator
Coronation Merchant Bank has announced that it made N5.78 billion profit before tax in its financial statement as at December 31, 2020, despite the pandemic which disrupted business activities last year.
The bank made this disclosure during its sixth Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos, recently.
According to the Chairman, Coronation Merchant Bank, Babatunde Folawiyo, the N5.78 billion profit represented a 15 per cent increase from the N5.024 billion made by the bank in 2019.
Folawiyo also announced that the bank’s total assets, “grew by 63 per cent from N253.35 billion in 2019, to N412.36 billion in 2020.
“Earning assets reached N269 billion, representing a 62 per cent rise from the 2019 position. Customer deposits and funds grew by 41 per cent from N138 billion in 2019 to N195 billion in 2020.
“Loans to customers also increased from N72.2 billion in 2019 to N122 billion in 2020. Non-interest income grew by 23 per cent to N7.4 billion and net interest income closed at N4.68 billion.”
According to him, overall the bank maintained healthy prudential ratios above regulatory thresholds, with loan to funding ratio of N67.86 per cent, capital adequacy ratio of 19.87 per cent and liquidity ratio of 50.93 per cent as at December 2020.
“We also continued to record 0 per cent non-performing loans while maintaining our credit discipline and a fortified balance sheet,” he said.
The shareholders thereby approved of the proposal of the directors that given the performance of the bank, a final dividend payment of 33 kobo per share be made to shareholders whose names are registered in the register of members at the close of business on April 5, 2021.
Speaking with THISDAY, the bank’s Managing Director, Adebanjo Adegbohungbe, attributed the successes recorded by the bank to improved technology and digital infrastructure, hard work, training, and dedication of staff of the bank.
He said: “Recognising the impact of remote working on our operations, we improved our technology and digital infrastructure to adapt more readily to emerging trends and protect the bank against cyber-attacks.
“Also, we modeled our business model to adapt to the new normal by proactively protecting and equipping our people to work remotely and deliver superior banking services to our customers,” he added.
