First Bank Records N33.4bn Profit After Tax

First Bank of Nigeria Plc has announced a profit after tax of N33.4billion for the year ended December 31, 2010, as against N4.9billion recorded in the nine months to December 2009.

The bank declared 60 kobo dividend per share with dividend warrant to be posted on June 6, 2011.

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Bisi Onasanya, made this public at the bank’s 42nd Annual General Meeting (AGM), held yesterday in Abuja.
According to the results released by the company, pre-tax profit also rose to N43.2billion as against N13.3billion recorded in the nine months to December 2009.

The company said it recorded net loans and advances of N1.15trillion, an increase of 5.5 per cent compared to N1.09trillion as at December 31, 2009, while shareholders’ funds stood at N340.6billion, representing an increase of 9.4 per cent from N311.3billion as at December 31 2009.

The company’s gross earnings stood at N231billion for the 12 months ended December 31, 2010, from N194billion in the nine months to December 2009, while total assets and contingents was N3.3trillion, indicating an increase of 5.8 per cent, from N3.1trillion in December 31, 2009.

Commenting on the impressive outlook of the bank during the year under review, Onasanya stated that despite the challenges of the economic crisis, the bank’s performance over the 12 months ended December 31 ,2010 was impressive.

According to him, “Two main influences on growth were active in the review period. The first was the effect of the CBN’s repair and reform of the banking sub-sector, which contributed to infusion of extra liquidity into the system. Second was the ripple effect of the recent global crisis, especially the resulting contraction of the capital market, which severely constrained the credit creation process. Both stimuli operated to constrain interest for the better part of the year.”

The national coordinator of Independent Shareholders Association(ISA), Mr. Sunny Nwosu, who spoke on behalf of the shareholders, expressed their satisfaction with the balance sheet, while requesting for clarification on the issue of subsidiaries following the circular order from the apex bank to sell off subsidiaries.
He also called on the bank to develop its branch networks in order to provide better services to customers.