Shareholders of Sterling Bank Plc on Thursday enjoined the management to map out strategies aimed at increasing the company’s profitability and business activities.
The shareholders gave the advice at the company’s 55th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos.
The shareholders, who lauded the management for efficient running of the affairs of the bank, also urged it to intensify efforts on recovery to accelerate its growth.
Mr Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria Emeritus, said there was need for the bank to access bigger capital to expand business scope.
“I urge shareholders to assist sterling bank to do bigger business. We need to recover our impairment because this money is having a multiplier effect on the shareholders’ fund.
We need to strengthen our recovery strategy and use the money to improve our performance in the current financial year,” Nwosu said.
Mr Boniface Okezie, the National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, commended the bank for its support to the areas of environmental sanitation.
Okezie urged the bank to do everything within its powers to recover impairment and increase profitability.
The shareholders activist, however, said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policies were bringing untold hardship to the shareholders.
“CBN should not impose laws and unnecessary penalties on banks at the detriment of the shareholders,”Okezie stated.
He also called on the bank to look for more depositors to boost its deposit base, noting that it should do more of adverts to create awareness of new products to grow its business.
Responding, Mr Yemi Adeola, the bank’s Managing Director, said that the bank would strengthen and diversify its funding sources and capacity underpinned by a quicker and execution of its retail banking rollout.
Adeola assured the shareholders that the bank was solid and stable, judging by its key ratios.
He said that the bank’s capital adequacy ratio and liquidity ratio were well above the regulatory threshold.
Adeola stated that the bank’s non-performing loans would be recovered in the current financial year to boost its profitability level.
The managing director noted that 2016 was a very tough year for all businesses occasioned by foreign exchange challenges, drop in oil prices and high inflation, among others.
Over the next five years, we will be steering our ship differently and aggressively growing the retail business through electronic channels,” Adeola said.
He said that the bank would prioritise efficiency over scale with the goal of achieving steady growth and sustainable returns to all stakeholders and optimise its cost profile, while providing `best in class’ service.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bank, for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2016, posted gross earnings of N111. 4 billion,
in contrast with N111 billion declared in 2015.
It recorded a profit-before-tax of N6.0 billion, compared with N11 billion achieved in 2015.
Profit-after-tax dropped to N5 billion in contrast with N10 billion posted in the previous year.
The financial highlights showed that net interest income increased by 41.6 per cent to N56 billion, against N39.5 billion posted in 2015.
The bank stated that the growth was on account of a 22.5 per cent increase in interest income and a 4.2 per cent increase in interest expense.
The bank’s net loans and advances increased by 38.2 per cent to N468.2 billion in contrast with N338.7 billion in 2015 driven primarily by foreign exchange revaluation.
Its customer deposits decreased marginally by 1.0 per cent to N584.7 billion, compared with N500. 9 billion recorded in 2015.
Also, total assets (excluding contingent liabilities) increased by 4.3 per cent to N834.2 billion, against N799.5 billion in the previous year. (NAN)