Nigerian banking tycoon Tony Elumelu to earn $1.16 million in interim dividends from UBA

Nigerian banking tycoon and Heirs Holding President Tony Elumelu is set to earn a N476.2-million ($1.16 million) dividend from the Lagos-based financial services provider, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA).

The dividend will be paid from the bank’s profit for the first half of 2021, as the leading lender continues to leverage its robust customer’s deposit of N6.1 trillion ($14.8 billion) despite the low-interest-rate environment.

UBA is a Nigeria-based financial group with operations in 20 African countries, as well as the UK, United States and France. It ranks as one of Nigeria’s largest lenders.

Elumelu holds a 6.96-percent stake in the group, deriving a $44.6-billion (N18.3 billion) position from the pan-African bank.

On Sept. 9, the Nigerian lender reported a 36-percent growth in profits from N44.4 billion ($107.9 million) in the first half of last year to N60.6 billion ($147.3 million).

The double-digit growth in the bank’s earnings was delivered off the back of higher interest and non-interest income that it generated from its customers despite the challenges that it encountered in its operating environment.

This financial performance in the first-half-year period led the board to recommend an interim dividend payment of N6.8 billion ($16.6 million) to shareholders.

This translates to a payout of N0.20 ($0.00073) per share on all the 34,199,421,368 ordinary shares held by shareholders.

Research conducted by Billionaires.Africa revealed that Elumelu, who holds more than 2.3 billion shares in UBA, is expected to earn a dividend of N476.2 million ($1.16 million) from the bank.The interim dividend payment will take his total direct earnings in 2021 to N1.72 billion ($4.18 million), as the multimillionaire banker previously received a final dividend of N1.24 billion ($3.3 million) from the bank this year.