Access Holdings Plc posts N57bn profit for Q1 2022

Access Holdings Plc has posted a profit of N57.40 billion in Q1 2022, a 9.23% increase from the corresponding quarter of 2021.

The results for the period released recently also showed earnings per share of N1.63, representing a 9.40% increase from the N1.49 reported a year earlier in Q1 2021.

The latest profit figure shows that Access Bank has grown its Q1 profits by 160% in 4 years since hitting N22 billion in Q1 2018 with the profit now touching roughly N57.40 billion.

A further look at the numbers showed net interest income for the period declined by 7.03% from N93.96 billion to N87.36 billion.

The company’s profit performance is on the back of margin growth as income from interest, foreign exchange gains and fees and commission income all appreciated year on year.

The company also earned N160.32 billion, from its lending business as Interest income grew by 27.27% from N125.97 billion.

It recorded loan losses growth of 9.17%, while net interest income after impairments depreciated by 9.52% to stand at N73.67 billion.

Nonetheless, the company grew its income from commission and fees rising 44.54% to N56.30 billion year on year and also generating a total of N85.83 billion from net foreign exchange gains as against N1.08 billion year on year.

However, net loss on financial instruments stood at N44.63 billion, on the back of an N85 billion loss on non-hedging derivatives.

The group’s e-business income raked in N20.13 billion, representing a 12.33% spike from N17.92 billion in 2021. This suggests that the bank has improved in its utilization of the e-banking channels in the delivery of financial services to its customers.

Equally, credit-related fees and commissions stood at N21.15 billion during the period.

In addition, the group also grew its deposits from customers by a whopping 7.76% to N7.49 trillion while its total assets are now N12.08 trillion. Net assets rose 4.77% to N1.08 trillion.

The bank’s Board of Directors proposed a final dividend per share of N0.70 per share, to be paid on each of the 35,545,225,622 issued ordinary shares and payable to shareholders on the register of shareholding at the closure