Shareholders of Zenith Bank Plc, yesterday, endorsed the N94.19 billion dividend proposed by its board of directors for the financial year ended December 31, 2020, translating to a dividend per share of N3.00 after paying 50 kobo per share interim dividend.
The shareholders at the at the 30th Annual General Meeting of the Bank held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, unanimously approved the audited financial statement for the year 2020 as well as all the resolutions proposed at the meeting.
According to the audited financial results, profit before tax rose by five per cent to N255.9 billion from N243.3 billion reported in the previous year despite a challenging macro-economic environment exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase arose from a mixture of growth in the top line and a significant reduction in interest expense from N148.5 billion in 2019 to N121.1 billion in 2020, significantly increasing the net interest income to N299.7 billion in 2020 from N267.0 billion in 2019.
The group recorded a growth in gross earnings of five per cent to N696.5 billion from N662.3 billion in the previous year. It also recorded eight per cent growth in non-interest income to N251.7 billion and a one per cent increase in interest income to N420.8 billion in 2020 from N232.1 billion and N415.6 billion in 2019 respectively.
