Nigeria’s largest bank by total assets toppled First Bank, Zenith Bank and UBA to occupy the first position with e-business revenue of 56.09 billion in 2020, according to the audited financial statements of 12 of the leading banks in the country.
Access Bank was fourth position in 2019 but catapulted to first as it grew its e-business income by a whopping 55.64 per cent from N36.04 billion recorded in the previous year.
This increase also translated to a 12.71 per cent growth in profit after tax to stand at N106.01 billion in the review period from N94.06 billion recorded in 2019.
First Bank lost its first position to Access Bank, having increased its e-business revenue marginally by 1.35 per cent to stand at N48.68 billion in 2020. Its e-business revenue accounted for 22.5 per cent of the e-business income recorded by the twelve banks under consideration.
UBA retained its position in third place with a total e-business revenue of N44.25 billion, accounting for 20.4 per cent of the total e-business income generated by the banks.
UBA recorded a 14.14 percent increase in its e-business revenue in 2020 compared to N38.8 billion recorded in the prior year.
Zenith Bank earned a sum of N27.08 billion from its e-business in 2020 to stand fourth on the list behind UBA.
Its income from e-business accounted for 12.5 per cent of the total income generated by the twelve banks. Zenith Bank’s e-business income witnessed a huge plunge of 36.3 per cent in 2020 compared to N42.5 billion it recorded in 2019.
However, Zenith Bank posted the highest profit of N230.6 billion in the review period, growing its profit after tax by 10.4 percent from N208.8 billion recorded in 2019.
Guaranty Trust Bank, the most capitalized financial institution listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, is fifth, generated a sum of N11.8 billion from its e-business unit, accounting for about 5.4 percent of the total e-business revenue in 2020.
Its e-business revenue declined massively by 24.85 percent compared to N15.66 billion recorded in the previous year.
Others are FCMB which made N8.61 billion from its e-business, and Union Bank with N7.04 billion. Sterling bank, Stanbic IBTC, Wema Bank fidelity Bank and Jaiz Bank made N4.97 billion, N2.74 billion, N2.61 billion, N2.46 billion and N214 million respectively.
In all the 12 banks raked in a sum of N216.52 billion from their e-business earnings in the year 2020 as against the N217bn in income from digital channels in 2019.
Banks attribute the reason for the drop in 2020 compared to 2019 to the revision of fees and charges for electronic transfers by the central bank in early 2020.
Banks in Nigeria have increasingly resorted to generating income from digital channels such as their mobile applications, USSD channels, and online banking targeting Nigerians from all works of life.
