Ecobank declares N156.55bn profit for 2022 FY

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) on Thursday announced N156.55billion profit in 2022 financial year, an increase of seven per cent from N146.33billion reported in corresponding period of 2021.

The Pan-African bank on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) announced N230.56billion profit before tax in 2022 an increase of 18 per cent from N195.72billion reported in 2021 financial year.

The increase in profits was driven by N1.08trillion gross earnings in 2022, an increase of 13per cent from N956.39billion reported in 2021.

The group announced N13.37trillion total assets in 2022 from N11.69trillion in 2021, driven by 25 per cent increase in loans & advances to customers and 15 per cent increase in deposits from customers.

Ecobank announced N5.07trillion loans & advances in 2022 from N4.06trillion in 2021, as deposits from customers hits N9.6trillion in 2022 from N8.36trillion in 2021.

CEO of Ecobank Group, Jeremy Awori in a statement said: “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.

“We grew profit before tax by 13per cent to $540 million, translating into earnings per share growth of 10per cent and delivering a record return on shareholders’ equity of 21.1per cent. With stubborn inflationary pressures in 2022, improving our cost-to-income ratio to 56.4per cent demonstrates our discipline around cost management.

“Moreover, 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 14.4per cent above the regulatory minimum.”

Awori added: “I started as Group CEO on March 1st, and I would like to thank Ade Ayeyemi, my predecessor, the Board, and all Ecobankers for their invaluable contribution to the Group’s performance. Ecobank is a unique and important pan-African franchise with substantial competitive advantages. It is still early days, so I can only offer my preliminary thoughts.

“We are working on creating a strategic roadmap that will drive growth, transformation and returns. In addition to our core corporate and investment banking business, we are seeing exciting opportunities for accelerating growth in our payments, consumer and commercial businesses as these represent fast-growing revenue pools in many of our markets.

“Our focus will be on execution, and we will have a performance, sales and service culture to drive success. Success for us will mean winning with the customer.

“So, we will reinvigorate our customers’ experience with Ecobank through investments in building a solid and enduring brand that offers them a more personal, relevant and rewarding experience than ever before. This will also deliver further solid financial performance for the Bank.

“I thank Ecobankers across the Group for working hard and smart to meet our customers’ needs. I am excited to work purposefully with and for our customers, partners, Board, shareholders and regulators to build an Ecobank for which we can all be proud.”