Banks have defied the recession as they continued to post huge profits in their third quarter results.
Ten out of 15 quoted banks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange have submitted their unaudited results as of September 2016 where five out of them recorded increases in both their profit before tax and after tax.
Within the last quarter under review, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had declared that the Nigerian economy had entered into recession. However some banks have gained huge profits following a major boost from the foreign exchange (FX) revaluation gains.
Five out of the 10 banks that declared results so far reported significant gains while the remaining five recorded decline in profits.
Collectively, the 10 banks recorded N488.96 billion pre-tax profit as of September 30, from N433.7 billion within the same period in 2015. This shows a N55.26 billion increase.
The after tax profit recorded within the period was N484.13bn compared to N357.59bn same period in 2015, showing an increase of N126.54 billion.
GTBank Plc recorded the highest gain of N140.84bn PBT from N92.06 in Q3 2015, an increase of 53 percent. Zenith Bank follows with N121.3bn PBT from 104.1 in Q3 2015, an increase of 16.6 percent.
Access Bank also showed a boost in its PBT from N60bn in Q3 2015 to N72bn in Q3 2016, while UBA also recorded increase in PBT from N57.3bn in Q3 2015 to N61.5bn in 2016 an increase of 7.3 percent. Union Bank also boost profit from N9.8bn in Q3 2016 to N12.4bn in the same period 2016.
Other banks however recorded declining returns. They are Diamond Bank with N3.8bn of PBT in Q3 2016 from N18.5bn in same period of 2015 and FBN Holdings with N57.45bn against N59.56bn in Q3 2015.
Others are Sterling Bank N6.07bn PBT down from N8.3bn, Unity Bank from N10.3bn in Q3 2015 to N3.8bn in 2016 and Fidelity Bank N9.8bn PBT down from N13.78bn in Q3 2015.
Five banks are yet to submit their reports at the exchange. They are Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC, FCMB, Ecobank and Wema Bank.
