By Onome Amuge.
FCMB Group Plc has announced its half-year financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2022, revealing a profit before tax of N15.4 billion, a 73.2 percent year-on-year growth compared to N8.9 billion in the corresponding year of 2021.
The group’s unaudited half-year results released on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) indicated that its gross revenue rose 34 percent to N126.2 billion from January to June 2022 compared to N94.2 billion recorded in the first half of 2021.
The group also recorded double-digit growth across its business segments which included 84.2 percent rise in the banking group, 42.7 percent increase in consumer finance, 41.9 percent rise in investment management, and 253.8 percent increase in investment banking.
The strong performance, according to the financial services group, reflects better-than-impressive earnings, revenue, deposits, loans and asset under management growth underpinned by an impressive climate action, financial inclusion, food security, customer acquisition and digital transformation scorecard.
In the period under review, the bank said it disbursed over 442,000 loans, totalling N21.0 billion, to more than 171,000 persons via its digital channels in the first six months of 2022. In addition, loans totalling N93.4 billion were disbursed to over 12,000 small businesses through the bank’s digital channels in H1, 2022.
FCMB’s focus on financial inclusion and MSMEs was further boosted by a $17.3 million funding partnership with Mastercard Foundation to provide affordable loans to 100,000 MSMEs over the next five years with a focus on 90 percent participation by women.
In addition, the bank contributed to food security and import substitution in Nigeria by growing its lending to the agricultural sector from N53.6 billion in H1 2021 to N87.9 billion in H1 2022, a net disbursement of N34.3 billion over that of last year, which represents 16.5 percent of total loan growth over the period.
Customer confidence in FCMB also grew significantly, as deposits rose by 22.3 percent to N1.6 trillion in June 2022 compared to N1.3 trillion achieved in June 2021.
In a similar trend, loans and advances disbursed by the bank to customers, including businesses, went up 22.3 percent to N1.1 trillion from N916.7 billion. The group’s total assets also rose by 18.3 percent to N2.7 trillion in June 2022, compared to N2.2 trillion within the same period in 2021.
FCMB Group’s Assets Under Management (AUM) recorded a 47.3 percent surge to an impressive N736 billion from N500 billion. The financial institution further noted that the acquisition of AIICO Pensions by FCMB Pensions Limited and the successful integration of both businesses drove FCMB Pension’s AUM by 61.2 percent to N618 billion.
Commenting on the bank’s strong performance in the half-year period, Ladi Balogun, group chief executive of FCMB Group Plc, said the bank has continually leveraged its unique group structure to enable a technology-driven ecosystem of platforms, customers, partners, talents, and capital to contribute to the sustainable and inclusive growth of the communities it serves.
“We believe that despite the challenging domestic and global environment, FCMB Group is well positioned to sustain its performance trend in financial and non-financial metrics,” Balogun said.
