Unity Bank grows balance sheet, improves on operational income

UNITY Bank has recorded growth in its balance sheet in key areas of customer deposits and loans and advances, a third quarter result released to the Nigeria Stock Exchange has shown.According to the release, the customer deposit grew by eight per cent, from N222 billion as at December 31, 2010 to N239 billion by the end of September 2011, while loans and advances grew by nine per cent from N113 billion to N123 billion in the same period.Accordingly, the overall balance sheet size recorded a significant growth by 44 per cent from N309 billion in December 2010 to N446 billion in September 2011. This is in line with the bank's objective of increasing its market share given the challenges of competition in the industry.While operational income grew by 27 per cent, expenses remained flat, even as gross earnings and profit before tax recorded declines of 25 per cent and 70 per cent respectively attributable to huge recoveries from bad accounts in the previous year's figures which were mainly one-off transactions.Similarly, the bank's non-performing loans to total loans ratio declined significantly from 34 per cent last year to 9.6 per cent. It is expected that the ratio would come below five per cent before December 2011 considering the initiatives being implemented that will put the bank on the path of sustainable growth and profitability.
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