By Uzoma Akobundu
Sterling Bank Plc shareholders and customers are not swayed by the management’s so-called customer-centric approach to achieving on set goals as they want the bank to make enough money and profit to compensate for their investment.
They are worried over the shrink in the bank’s Profit Before Tax (PBT) and Profit After Tax (PAT) index in its financial performance for the nine months that ended September 30, 2019 that was recently released to the public.
For the period under review, Sterling Bank’s PBT was N7.65 billion as against N8.5billion in 2018, a shortfall of more than N800 million.
Also, the PAT report of the bank indicates that in 2019, Sterling Bank made N7.37billion as against N8.2billion in the same period of 2018, also a shortfall of more than N800 million.
As if that was not enough problem, Sterling bank’s gross earnings shrank by N1billion if what it earned in 2018 (N114billion) compared to what it earned in 2019 (N113billion) during the period under examination is anything to go by.
The net interest income however rose to N47.53 billion in 2019, up from N39.834 billion in 2018, representing a growth of 19.3 per cent.
The bank has attributed the growth which it put at 200 per cent to its retail and consumer loans portfolio.
It also credited the bank’s innovative digital lending platform, Specta, for the spike, noting that with the device, the bank averaged N8 billion per month, reaching over 40,000 individuals at the end of September, 2019.
According to the reports filed at the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Sterling bank’s fee and commission income rose from N10.7 billion to N14 billion.
Customers’ deposits appreciated to N853.551 billion during the period under examination compared to N760.6 billion in 2018, indicating a growth of 12.2 per cent.
Also, loans to customers grew to N635.093 in 2019 from N621.017 billion in 2018, representing a growth of 2.3 percent while shareholders’ funds rose to N109.535 billion in 2019 compared to N97.800 billion in 2018, again representing a growth of 12 per cent.
The bank’s non-performing loans (NPL) dropped to 7.4 per cent in 2019 from 8.7 percent in showing an improvement of 14.6 percent.
Commenting on the report, the Managing Director/CEO, Sterling Bank Plc, Abubakar Suleiman said the bank will continue to resort to a customer-centric approach to achieving its set goals.
Theirs, he insists, is about growth and enhancement of its digital capacity as well as remaining focused.
Suleiman said: “Our performance continues to reflect positive results of strategic decisions and investments in our focus areas. We recorded significant improvement in transaction led revenue and our funding base riding on adoption of digital channels. Overall, we delivered a 7.7 per cent increase in operating income and profit after tax of N7.58 billion.
“Going into the final quarter, we will continue to take a customer-centric approach to achieving growth and enhance our digital capacity to further support the business, while remaining focused on exceeding our performance in the previous year.”
However, analysts are of the opinion that reports on PBT and PAT are key to the trust that Sterling bank’s shareholders and customers alike have on those they entrust with their resources when it comes to return on their investment and competitiveness.