Wema Bank said on Thursday that its half-year pretax profit was N1.7 billion ($10.5 million), an increase of  266 percent from the N464.7 million the lender recorded in the same period last year.

Gross earnings rose to N12.5 billion during the six months to June 30, against N10 billion a year earlier, the regional bank said in a filing with the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Announcing the results in Lagos the bank’s Managing Director/CEO, Segun Oloketuyi, said: “We are pleased to announce that WEMA Bank continued to demonstrate strong improvements in profitability and balance sheet efficiency in the first half of 2014.

“Our Profit Before Tax leapt 266 per cent to N1.7 billion and the Bank’s Net Interest Margin has improved to 7.7 per cent reflecting a more efficient restructuring of our deposit mix in favour of cheaper funds. We continued the process of redeploying our resources into higher yielding assets while keeping a close eye on operating expenses. Loans and advances grew by 17 per cent from December 2013 whilst our cost of funds continues to reduce.”

http://businessdayonline.com/2014/07/wema-bank-half-year-profit-rises-to-n1-7-billion/