Wema Bank announces 17.6% growth increase in gross earnings

Wema Bank Plc for the financial year ended December 31, 2016 has announced an increase of 17.56 per cent in gross earnings from N45.79 billion in 2015 to N53.83 billion..
The lender’s profit after tax moved from N2.27 billion in 2015 to N2.56 billion in 2016 while profit before tax gained 9.36per cent to N3.27 billion as against N2.99 billion in 2015
Total Assets as at December 2016 stood at N421 billion representing a six per cent increase over the N397 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2015 as loans to customers rose by 23per cent to close the 2016 year at N228 billion from N186 billion recorded in 2015.
Impressively, the Bank during the year maintained its Non-Performing Loans (NPL) at 4.01per cent, below the regulatory limit of five per cent, despite the challenging macro-economic environment.
Furthermore, the Bank continues to record growth in its retail deposit drive, as the Wema brand gains continued acceptance. Savings deposit grew by 27.6per cent from N35.58 billion to N45.40 billion while current account deposit grew by 28.14per cent from N17.45 billion to N22.36 billion.
Chairman, Board Of Directors, Wema Bank Plc, Adeyinka Asekun in a statement said, “In our continued bid to constantly review our business model, the Bank re-affirmed four key determinants namely Innovation and Technology, Fostering Relationship, Risk Management and National footprint. We strongly believe that these success factors would aid the attainment of our strategic objective, bordering on Expertise, Excellence and Efficiency (3Es).
“The Bank will continue to optimise its balance sheet whilst streamlining our processes and driving efficiency. Furthermore, the Bank will continue to focus on value creation for our esteemed customers and particularly our shareholders.
“In the course of the 2016 financial year, your bank recorded significant success in various areas worth enunciating. As stated earlier, we launched the Bank’s Mobile Branch as part of our Financial Inclusion drive.
“In spite of the tremendous challenges we faced as a bank in 2016, the Bank maintained both its international and domestic Long-Term National Rating at (BBB-) with a Stable Outlook.
“We remain investment grade and this is particularly important as we seek to attract new investment into the bank to allow us grow our business in 2017.
“Also during the year, the Bank executed its long-term strategic goal to partner with key institutions within the Telecommunication space. In December 2016, we successfully launched the *945*10# Initiative, also known as “WemaEasySavers” in partnership with Etisalat. The project will expose customers of both institutions to best-in-class banking service and connectivity.
Customers on the Etisalat platform will be able to open Wema accounts from their mobile phone via the *945*10# platform.
“We are confident that the partnership will be successful and boost our customer acquisition drive in 2017.
“In 2016, the Bank set up The Wema Digital Lab, which has developed a digital product suite, named ALAT. Our digital offering intends to revolutionize the digital banking landscape as we press on to deliver Africa’s first truly digital bank. ALAT is a new and distinct Digital offering, with a value proposition centered around convenience and reliability.
“ALAT will facilitate an end-to-end digital Minimum Viable Product targeted at the identified market segments (Youth, Young Professionals and Young Entrepreneurs). We expect to acquire a minimum of 300,000 customers in the first three months.
“These new customers will significantly change the demographic of the Bank’s existing customer base. They will have a natural predilection towards technology and utilising the full basket of alternative platform offerings from ALAT.
“We envisage that the bulk of these customers will be youths. These individuals that will allow the Bank utilise its single most important strength; building relationships that will endure for decades to come.
“Technology will be the single most important disruptor to the Banking system in the coming years. With ALAT, we are positioning ourselves at the forefront of this inevitable disruption as market leaders.”