EcoBank grows profit gain by 13% to $540m
The Ecobank Group was discovered to have grew on its Profit Before Tax by 13 per cent to $540million in the 2022 financial year.
This was disclosed in its audited results for the year ending December 31, 2022, which was released on Thursday.
According to Eco Bank, the PBT growth was supported by the benefits of its diversified business model. Within the period under review, the solid profit growth in Commercial Banking were on 100 per cent,down to $134million and Consumer Banking, up 50 per cent to $130million, was partially offset by a decrease of 17 per cent to $333million in Corporate and Investment Banking PBT, mainly due to impairment charges associated with Government of Ghana’s debt restructuring exercise.
The pan-African banking institution also reported net revenues of $1.9billion in the period under review.
As part of its commitment to shareholders, the bank also announced a proposed final dividend payout of $28million or 0.11 US cents per share subject to shareholder approval at its next AGM.
Speaking about the result in a statement accompanying the financial results, the Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank, Jeremy Awori, said that Ghana’s debt restructuring exercise placed the company in a difficult position during the financial year.
He stated that, “Ecobank’s strong 2022 performance reflects the strength of our diversified business model, growth momentum and efficiency, and was achieved despite operating in a challenging macroeconomic environment, which also included the difficulties that Ghana’s debt restructuring exercise placed on us.
However, the bank grew Profit Before Tax by 13 per cent to $540million, translating into earnings per share growth of 10 per cent and delivering a record return on shareholders’ equity of 21.1 per cent, With stubborn inflationary pressures in 2022, improving our cost-to-income ratio to 56.4 per cent demonstrates our discipline around cost management.
Meanwhile, we further reduced the amount of non-performing loans to 5.2 per cent, reflecting our continued progress in improving credit quality. Our balance sheet is well capitalised, with a total capital adequacy ratio of 14.4 per cent above the regulatory minimum.”
Awori a Kenyan, started as the Group CEO of Ecobank earlier this month.
According to the bank, the gross impairment charges on loans and advances were $270 million for 2022 compared with $374 million in 2021, reflecting a decrease in non-performing loans. The net impairment charges on loans and advances were also lower in 2022 at $10million compared to $170 million in 2021.
It as further stated that the bank added the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe and South Sudan resulted in a $34million net monetary loss.
Its payment revenues skyrocketed to $25million or 12 per cent to $234million (representing 13 per cent of the Group net revenues), driven by merchant acquiring, cards, and wholesale payment and its total assets increased by $1.4billion to $29.0billion, primarily driven by growth in loans and investment securities driven by customer deposits growth.
