Nigeria’s commercial lender, Unity Bank Plc, has declared gross earnings of N44.59 billion for 2019 #nancial year, continuing a path to strong growth started in 2018 financial year, after the bank took bold corporate action to clean up its balance sheet in 2017.

The Bank has also posted PBT of N550m in its Q1, 2020 result releasedalongside with the 2019 Financial Year result to the Nigerian StockExchange (NSE).

A review of the Bank’s Q1 2020 result showed that the lender recorded growth in Pro#t After Tax (PAT) by 9% to N506.07 million as against N464.87 reported in the same quarter in 2019.

The audited 2019 full year result showed that the Bank recorded a Pro#tBefore Tax (PBT) of N3.64 billion, while Pro#t After Tax (PAT) closed at N3.38 billion, thereby consolidating on the gains on the reforms institutedby the Bank to grow a healthy balance sheet since the past two years.

Analysis of the Bank’s performance shows a relatively strong growth across key #nancial metrics such as the Net Operating Income for the year ended December 2019 which rose by 76.39% to N23.211 billion from N13.159 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.

Net Interest Income of the bank was also a strong growth as it grew by 18.06% to N16.493 billion from N13.970 billion the previous year.

This is even as the Bank’s Total Asset saw a 71.93% increase to close at N293.052 billion from N210.80 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.

The retail lender also recorded a total comprehensive income of N5.52 billion while Earnings Per Share stood at 28.94 Kobo.

The result further showed that having better positioned itself to advancecredit to the economy through the cleaning up of its loan book in 2017, the Bank grew its loan books by 135.87% to N104.02 billion in 2019 as against the N44.10 billion it closed in 2018.

The Bank had embarked on several cost minimization initiatives that have continued to yield positive results.

These measures led to a decrease in the Bank’s Total Operating Expenses to N19.57 billion in 2019 from N20.71 billion in 2018.

The Bank will continue to implement these measures, whichare aimed at building processes that attract e=iciency gains in resource.