Lagos (WorldStage Newsonline)-- Despite the challenging business environment, Fidelity Bank at its 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos on Thursday approved the payment of 14 kobo dividend per share of 50 kobo each to its shareholders, which translates N4.05 billion.
The chairman of the bank, Christopher Ezeh in his address, said that the improvements across major operating parameters were remarkable considering that the Nigerian banking industry is in transition from a financial crises that rocked the very foundation of the financial system and the Nigerian economy.
He assured the shareholders that bank will continue to pay better dividend at end of every financial year irrespective of the challenges in the business environment.
Speaking further on the financial statement, the chairman said that the bank's financial result showed outstanding growth in demonstrates the bank's strong financial health and capacity to create wealth for its stakeholders. He said that the bank's gross earnings grew by 25 per cent from N56.05 billion in 2010 to N70.05billion in the year under review.
He added that profit before taxation dropped by 11.3 per cent from N8,651 billion in 2010 to N7,671 billion in the year under review while the bank's profit after also dropped by 12.2 per cent to stand at N5,361 billion, when compared with N6,108billion reported in 2010.
He further said that the bank's deposits base went up by 71.4 per cent to N561.09 billion for the year under review when compared to N327.35 billion reported for the corresponding period in 2010.
The chairman noted that the bank's net lease rose to N282.72billion, representing a 42 per cent growth over N199.16 billion, while total shareholders fund for year was N137.36 billion.
On the future outlook, he noted that Nigerian economy is going through a transformation, adding that some of the changes had to be fundamental for the full impact to be felt in the economy and society.
According to him, "we believe that if sustained, significant new opportunities for business will emerge.
He further said that the key issues “are expansion of power generation and distribution, reducing the cost and difficulty of doing business, maintaining monetary stability, fiscal transparency and discipline as well as political stability and security.”
He noted that the long term plan of the bank was to continue to build its balance sheet and general business capacity to put it in a strong position to continue to participate and lead activity in the emerging economy.
