Ecobank Group, the pan African bank has released its first quarter result for the period ended March 30, 2022 profit before tax (PBT) at $125 million, increasing by 25% or $25 million from the $100 million in prior-year period.

Moreover, profit after tax from continuing operations rose by 24% to $92 million from $74 million in Q1 2021, diluted earnings per share up 29% to 0.27 US cents and net revenue growth of 7% to $436 million. Returns on tangible shareholders’ equity was 18.9% compared to 15.7% a year ago.

Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of the group said, “We achieved these results in a difficult operating environment characterised by the strengthening of the US dollar against our operating currencies, high inflation, high interest rates and tight labour markets across Africa as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continued to take its toll. Despite these challenges, we continued to support our customers effectively, which paid off as our businesses grew their revenues and profits. These were driven by trade, cash management, FICC and payments, while we also achieved modest loan growth with support from higher interest rates.

“As a result, pre-tax profits increased by 13%, 26% and 59% in our Corporate and Investment Banking, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking businesses respectively. It is important to note that it is the bold strategic decisions and our investments in people, systems and processes over time that have resulted in the record returns for our shareholders today. We are unrelenting in our focus on driving returns towards our medium-term goal of approximately 20%.

“We have continued to run the company with expense discipline, while growing earnings and investing in improvements to the customer experience. So, despite increased expenses – largely due to inflation – our cost-to-income ratio improved to 58.0%, compared to 59.3% a year ago. Our credit portfolio is in good shape, and we continue to drive down the non-performing loans ratio towards our near-term goal of under 6% while we maintain adequate impairment reserves as a buffer for possible downside risks.

“We have ample liquidity on our balance sheet and continue to generate healthy levels of customer deposits while maintaining satisfactory levels of capital above internal and regulatory minimums. As a result, we are confident in the company’s positioning for growth, and will continue to invest in our digital offerings and payment capabilities while enhancing our core technology.

In summary, we are pleased with our progress, and I would like to thank our customers for their trust, and all Ecobankers for their hard work towards realising our vision and remaining the bank that Africa and friends of Africa trust.”