The board of Unity Bank Plc, on Wednesday, presented its audited result for the year December 31, 2016, showing that gross earnings could only manage a N5.839bn or 7.46% rise from N78.173bn to N84.012bn, out of which interest and similar income crawled to N69.377bn from N62.711bn; while interest and similar expense was flat at N19.901bn from N19.619bn, leaving net interest income at N49.475bn, slightly better than the previous N43.092bn.
The bank lost a huge ground in terms of fee and commission income, which slumped to N1.642bn from N9.251bn; just as net fee and commission income dropped to N1.642bn from N9.251bn.
Net trading income rose to N7.41bn from N2.688bn; while net loss from sale of financial instrument at fair value fell to N8.13m to N20.88m; just as other operating income increased to N5.591bn from N3.543bn.
Impairment of financial assets increased to N35.948bn from N27.122bn, resulting in net operating income to N28.162bn from N31.432bn; personnel expenses dropped N11.634bn from N12.072bn; depreciation of property and equipment dropped to N1.727bn from N2.003bn. Other operating expenses fell to N12.792bn from N14.767bn, bringing total operating expenses came to N26.346bn down from 29.089bn.
Profit before tax for the period dropped to N1.816bn from N2.342bn; while Profit after tax contracted by N2.505bn or 53.42% from N4.689bn in the corresponding period of 2015 to N2.183bn, translating to Earnings Per Share of 18.68 kobo, from 12.34 kobo.
According to the report to shareholders, “during the year, the Bank transferred the sum of N158billion from its retained earnings to a non-distributable reserve within the statements of Changes in equity.
“The bank holds total credit risk reserves of N261bn as at 31 December 2016.”