Union Bank reported a 22.2 percent drop in profit after tax from N24.6 billion in 2020 to N19.2 billion last year in its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2021.

The bank reported gross earnings of N175 billion in its audited accounts released to investors, an increase of 8.9% over the N160.7 billion it reported in 2020.

The bank said this was driven by strong interest income which stood at N55.7 billion a 26.7 per cent improvement compared to N44 billion recorded in 2020.

Its profit before tax had gone down by 19.3 per cent to N20.5 billion compared to N25.4 billion in 2020 as operating expenses marginally grew by 1.5 per cent to N79.1 billion from N78 billion in 2020.

Customer deposits during the last financial year had gone up by 20.4 per cent to N1.4 trillion as against N1.1 trillion as at December 2020 as gross loans rose to N899.1 billion as at December 31, 2021 compared to N736.7 billion as at the end of the 2020 financial year.

Commenting on the results, chief executive of Union Bank, Emeka Okonkwo, said: “following an enhancement to our operating and go-to-market model to deliver better performance and efficiency leveraging our network across the regions, we are increasing our customer engagement and product penetration which is translating into higher customer revenues across geographies.

“On the back of this, the bank has continued to record headline growth by diversifying our income streams and accelerating our recoveries programme.

For the full year, our gross earnings grew by 8.9 per cent from N161 billion to N175 billion, while our net operating income after impairments dropped by 3.6 per cent to N99.7 billion from N103.4 billion.

“We continued our strong growth in non-interest income through a combination of aggressive recoveries, which grew 119 per cent in the period, from N7.2 billion to N15.9 billion and further growth in fee and commission income and e-business. These were delivered on the back of sustained multi-channel growth in users, volume and value across our digital and agent channels. Total active Union Mobile users now stands at 3.3 million, up 20 per cent while our Union360 customer base grew by 22 per cent to 26,400.

On his part, chief financial officer at Union Bank, Joe Mbulu said: “customer deposits grew by 20 per cent while our loan book grew by 22 per cent from N736.7 billion to N899.1 billion, as we deepened support for key sectors in the economy. We have been remained proactive in the way we manage our growing risk assets, maintaining our asset quality during the year with our NPL ratio growing marginally from four per cent to 4.3 per cent.”