Shareholders of nine banks listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, received 42.2 per cent or N158.4 billion as Return on Investment, ROI , out of the total banks’ Profit After Tax, PAT, of N375.8 billion for the financial year, 2015.
The nine banks’ PAT declined by N11.1 billion or 2.9 per cent as they recorded a total of N375.8 billion for the financial year, 2015 when compared to the figure of N386.9 billion recorded in 2014, Financial Vanguard’s findings showed.
The banks’ managements have decried the harsh operating environment and the risks that characterized the period under review as high operating cost impacted negatively to reduce profit margins.
The nine banks which financial reports for the year under consideration were examined include: Access Bank Plc, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank, GTBank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, and United Bank for Africa, UBA Plc. Others are Zenith Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, and Union Bank Nigeria Plc.
Findings further revealed that Access Bank declared Profits After Tax of N65.9 billion, while it paid N15.2 billion as dividend; Ecobank Transnational Incorporated PAT was N21.3 billion and released N7.1 billion as dividend.
GTBank posted N99 billion PAT, while it paid dividend of N51.33 billion. Sterling Bank recorded 10.3 billion, while its shareholders were paid N1.7 billion as dividend.
UBA on its part declared N47.6 billion PAT, while it paid its shareholders N15.7 billion as dividend. Zenith Bank was not different as it declared N98.8 billion, while it paid shareholders N62.8 billion as dividend. Fidelity Bank recorded N16.3 PAT, and paid N4.6 billion to shareholders as dividend.
Union Bank which declared N2.3 billion PAT and declared no dividend, just as Wema Bank declared N13.9 billion without proposing any dividend to shareholders. Further analysis showed that the nine banks’ reward to shareholders by dividend payout in 2015 grew by 18.8 per cent from N133.3 billion in 2014 to N158.4 billion.
Zenith Bank paid the highest dividend in 2015 recording N62.8 billion compared to N54 billion in 2014, followed by GTBank, which recorded N51.3 billion as against N51.5 billion in 2014.
Others are UBA N15.7 billion as against N10.6 billion, Access Bank N15.2 billion as against N5.7 billion, Ecobank Transnational N7.1 billion as against nil in 2014, Fidelity Bank N4.6 billion as against N5.2 billion, Sterling Bank N1.7 billion as against N5.4 billion in 2014. Wema Bank and Union Bank did not declare dividend for the two year period.
