United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), one of Nigeria’s Tier 1 banks, posted a total Electronic Banking Income (E-business Income) of N41.9 billion in the first 9 months of 2021.
This represents a 50.7% growth from the N27.8 billion in E-business income recorded in the same period last year.
The data was obtained from the recently released 2021 9-months financial statement of the bank. The bank is on track to beat the N44.2 billion in E-business Income reported in the whole of 2020 making it one of the most improved in the sector.
A closer look at the data reveals the bank recorded E-business income from the quarter ended September 2021 of N12.3 billion slowing from the record N17.2 billion posted in the second quarter of the same year. However, this compares favourably with the N9.9 billion reported in the corresponding quarter of 2020.
Nigerian Banks have focused aggressively on competitive electronic banking services, gradually making it a mainstay of the revenue mix. E-business income is now 38% of UBA’s gross commission and fees income up from 33% same period last year.
Electronic Banking Income includes fees from electronic bank transfers, fees from transactions on its mobile app, etc.
Despite the surge in E-business income, the bank still faces stiff competition from other players in the sector including traditional and challenger banks.
This competition is reflected in the bank’s net income from this segment with margins of just 12%. For example, the bank also incurred an E-business expense of N37.1 billion during the period compared to N24.2 billion same period last year.
This suggests 88.5% (2020: 87%) of the income from electronic business is an expense leaving the bank with just N4.8 billion left.
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc announced impressive performance in its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021.
Specifically, the bank’s Gross Earnings rose to N490.3 billion, up from N454.4 billion recorded in September 2020, while Operating Income grew by 13% year-on-year to close at N331.7 billion as at September 2021, up from N293.7 billion achieved a year earlier.
In the report filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Monday, UBA reported a 37% rise in Profit Before Tax to close at N123.4 billion compared to N90.4 billion recorded at the end of the third quarter of 2020, while profit after tax rose significantly by 36% to N104.6 billion up from N77.1 billion recorded a year earlier, thus putting its annualised return on average equity for Q3 2021 at 19.2% compared to 16.4% recorded in the similar period of 2020.
