Sterling Pays Shareholders N4.32bn Dividend

Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc has paid dividend of N4.32 billion, representing 15 kobo per share to its shareholders for the 2022 financial year.

The company, in a statement signed by its company secretary & chief legal counsel, Temitayo Adegoke, notified Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), its shareholders, and the investing public that, following the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the final dividend of 15 kobo per ordinary share of 50 kobo each (subject to the deduction of appropriate withholding tax) declared by its subsidiary, Sterling Bank, for the financial year ended December 31, 2022 will be discharged by the company to shareholders.

The dividend which was paid yesterday July 10, 2023 to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at the close of business on May 19, 2023. The qualification date has been aligned with the date advised by Sterling Bank during its Annual General Meeting held on May 31, 2023.

Speaking at Sterling Bank 2022 Annual General Meeting held in May, 2023, chairman of the board of directors, Asue Ighodalo said, “despite the challenges during 2022, our performance reflected our resilience and determination to deliver optimal value for our stakeholders.”

Ighodalo explained that “we closed the year on a good note, growing profit before tax to N20.8 billion, representing a 29.2 per cent increase year-on-year from N16.1 billion recorded in 2021.”

He noted that “following our transformation into a holding company, this will allow shareholders and customers to maintain continued exposure to the Bank’s existing lines of business and gain exposure to new permissible business lines that would enhance shareholder value.

“As we chart a new future for our organization, the expanded company structure will give us the renewed ambition to confront new challenges and solve more problems. The Alternative Bank will impact lives through ethical wealth generation while leveraging partnerships and digital platforms to tend to the needs of our retail, commercial, corporate, and institutional customer.”

Also, managing director/CEO, Abubakar Suleiman added that “we commenced the final stages of restructuring our businesses to becoming a financial holding company, our existing corporate arrangement could no longer contain our ambitions. This important work is projected to be completed by the end of 2023 and will unleash a whole new operating energy.”

Suleiman stated that “the true measure of our commitment to transforming from a midsize bank to a leading impact-focused specialized financial institution can be best measured by our progress in the HEART sectors. We have moved from scribblings on used papers to what has been rightly described as the most compelling vision by any bank in Africa in the last decade.

“We are now truly the bank with a heart, with our exposure to these sectors approaching our 20 per cent mark, our pedigree in the industry now acknowledged and our impact in the lives of people impossible to ignore.”