The Bank’s unaudited results for the half-year released recently showed that gross earnings of the Group increased by 34.2 per cent from N38 billion in 2006 to N51 billion in 2007. The Group net profit after tax rose from N8 billion achieved in 2006 to N14 billion in 2007, showing about 75 per cent increase.

Consequently, the Bank also achieved remarkable improvement in pre-tax and gross earnings for the half-year ended September 30, 2007, hitting N14.3 billion and N41 billion respectively, compared with N9.2 billion and N30 billion posted in 2006, respectively.

The Bank’s net post-tax profit also increased from N7.4 billion in 2006 to N12 billion during the corresponding period of 2007, representing 62.1 per cent increase.

The Bank’s performance has continued to maintain a healthy trend, though the operating environment has become increasingly competitive, and the directors are of the opinion that, barring unforeseen circumstances, the result for the second half of the year would show further improvement.

As part of strategic plans to achieve the Bank’s forecast for the financial year ending in March 31, 2008, the Bank has concluded the upgrade of its banking software (flexcube) and is currently undertaking an Enterprise-wide Transformation Programme with a view to offering efficient and value added service to its numerous customers.