The Chief Financial Officer of FBN Holdings Plc, Patrick Iyamabo has revealed that FirstBank Group in 2021 alone grew its loan book by over N50 billion every month, adding that in total, the bank created more than N2.8 trillion worth of loans.
Speaking recently in Lagos, Iyamabo explained that in the 50 years, the bank has had to deal with complex issues and has successfully managed them to the point of reducing the NPLs to the industry standard.
“That’s a lot and we also have deposits of more than N5.6 trillion. In other words, we grew the core of the business in real substantial terms and were able to monetise that growth.
“If you just think about the deposit franchise growth alone, it is like creating a new bank every one year plus; that is what we will achieve in 2021. And that growth continued into the first quarter of 2022 and we expect that movement to continue till the end of the year.
“We are at the forefront of paying very close attention to those needs and you would notice from our financials that the lines that capture the associated income – whether it is account maintenance charges, credit fees, trade fees and all those fees income line increased significantly on year-on-year bases, reflecting the increase in the volume of the customers.
