In the first half of 2021, Nigerian financial group – Access Bank, made N29.9 billion ($73 million) from its E-channels and businesses. This makes a 37% increase from the N21.8 billion ($53 million) that was made during the same period in last year, 2020.
E-businesses and channels here stated, include earnings from electronic channels, card products and related services. The disclosure was made in its interim financial results for the six months under review; January to June 30, and the report released on September 3rd, 2021.
The E-business income contributed to about 40.5 earnings from fees and commission, which climaxed to N73.7 billion in H1 of 2021, and made up 7% of gross earnings. The report however, did not include any possible pointers as to the reason for increase in earnings from electronic channels.
Since Access bank merged with Diamond Bank 3 years ago, it has become Nigeria’s largest bank by customer base and total assets after merging with Diamond Bank three years ago. Since then, deposits have grown to nearly N6 trillion $15 billion) from about N3.5 trillion ($8.5 billion) in 2018 when the merging was first considered.
In the H1 2021 financial report, there is 31.21% increase in profit before tax to the tune of N97.50 billion ($238 million), from the N74.31 billion ($181 million) in 2020.
Gross earnings stood at N450.62 billion ($1.099 billion) for the first half of the year, a 13.58% increase from N396.77 billion ($968 million) in H1 2020. Interest income rose by nearly 32% from N211.99 billion ($517 million) in 2020 to N279.64 billion ($682 million), while earnings per share increased by 42.35% year-on-year fromN1.73 to N2.48.
This growth is a massive one, especially considering that Nigeria is still predominantly a cash-based economy even with the availability of different electronic payment platforms. The future is not without prospects though, as reports like this indicate.
