Nigeria’s Guarantee Trust Bank Plc (GTB) has announced a profit after tax of N49.01 billion ($303 million) for the half year ended June 30 2013, indicating a 7.59 percent increase from N45.55 billion ($281.4 million) last year.

The bank’s audited financial results released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that its gross earnings also stood at N124.2 billion ($767 million) up from N113.5 billion ($699 million) in June of 2012, according to reports.

However, the its non-performing loans remained low at 3.41 percent.

As a result, GTBank’s return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) closed at 33.78 percent and 5.45 percent respectively for the period.

Consequently, the bank said it proposed an interim dividend payment of N7.36 billion ($45 million) to shareholders, translating to N0.25 per ordinary shares of 50 kobo each.

Commenting on the results, the MD/CEO of the pan-African bank, Mr Segun Agbaje, attributed the result to hard work and good corporate governance standards.

He stressed that a major objective for the bank this year was to “add value to its stakeholders through excellent customer service, innovative products and value added services”.

GTBank which announced that it was in the process of acquiring a 70 percent stake in FinaBank of Kenya to enable it extend its reach to Kenya, said “it will see us enlarge our geographical footprint into East Africa”.

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