Nigeria’s Sterling Bank targeting economy’s growth sectors in H2 earnings pursuit

Sterling Bank, Nigeria’s mid-tier bank, is looking for earnings uptick in the growth sectors of the country’s economy, says Abubakar Suleiman, its managing director and chief executive officer.
The bank will also, while looking for opportunities in the growth sectors, actively support special intervention and social investment programmes, Suleiman said.

“Sterling Bank would continue to explore and exploit opportunities already identified across the growth sectors of the economy while actively supporting special intervention and social investment programmes,” he said following the release of the bank’s H1 result for the year.

The bank unaudited account released Monday showed a 63 percent growth in profit after tax to N6.2 billion on gross earnings of N77.6 billion or a growth of 36 percent over earnings recorded in the first half of 2017.

This was against PAT of N3.8 billion on gross earnings of N57.1 billion during the corresponding period of 2017.

Explaining the strategy adopted for growth, Suleiman disclosed that the bank sustained momentum in the second quarter and delivered solid growth across key financial indices on the backdrop of a 25.1 percent growth in interest income and a 56.5 percent growth in transaction banking revenues.

These achievements, he said, emphasizes the bank’s commitment to retail drive. Net operating income was up 29.1 percent, on the back of a 54.8 percent reduction in impairment charges.

“Sterling Bank experienced significant improvement in asset quality as cost of risk declined further by 86 basis points to 0.8 percent from 1.6 percent in June 2017, reflecting the strength of our risk management framework. Overall, profit after tax rose by 63 percent to N6.2billion resulting in a 370-basis point increase in Return on Average Equity to 12.2 percent,” Suleiman said.

During the first half of 2018, the bank launched a number of financial products including Farepay, Specta, and Sterling One Pay.