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Zenith Bank Plc, led by Nigerian banking tycoon Jim Ovia, reported a profit of N174.33 billion ($399 million) at the end of the first nine months of its fiscal year 2022, as the leading lender continues to benefit from its asset diversification strategy.
As Nigeria’s second-largest bank in terms of assets, trailing only Herbert Wigwe’s Access Holdings, Zenith Bank, saw its profit after tax rise by 8.55 percent to N174.33 billion ($399 million) in the first nine months of its 2022 fiscal year, up from N160.6 billion ($367.5 million) the previous year.
The increase in earnings can be attributed to the strong performance of its core banking operations during the nine-month period, which resulted in a 20-percent increase in interest income from N518.7 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2021 to N620.57 billion ($1.42 billion).
Aside from an increase in interest income, the rise in earnings can also be attributed to an increase in fee and commission income from N78.3 billion ($179.2 million) to N100.06 billion ($229 million), as well as an increase in trading gains during the review period.
As a result of the group’s strong financial performance, its assets grew from N11.34 trillion ($25.95 billion) to N8.75 trillion ($20.02 billion), while its retained earnings grew from N558.04 billion ($1.28 billion) to N638.22 billion ($1.46 billion).
Zenith Bank is a leading financial services provider in Nigeria and Anglophone West Africa, licensed as a commercial bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria. It is presently Nigeria’s most profitable bank and the Nigerian Stock Exchange’s largest listed financial services group.
Ovia, who founded the tier-one bank in 1990 and has played a seminal role in both the evolution and digital transformation of Nigerian banking, owns a significant 16.2-percent stake in the company, or 5,072,104,311 ordinary shares.
