WorldStage Newsonline– Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank), Nigeria’s leading financial group on Wednesday released its Consolidated Financial Statements of the bank and the group for the period ended 30 June, 2020 http://www.nse.com.ng/Financial_NewsDocs/31359_GUARANTY_TRUST_BANK_PLC.-_QUARTER_2_-_FINANCIAL_STATEM.pdf, barely 24 hours after alerting the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the investing public that its being delayed at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), its primary regulator.
The bank which is publicly quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) listed on the London Stock Exchange declared a gross earnings of N225.139 billion, a 1.7% improvement from N221.870 billion in second quarter (Q2) 2019 while profit declined by 4.9% to N94.271 billion from N99.133 billion in Q2 2019.
Meanwhile, the directors of the company have proposed the payment of an interim dividend in the sum of 30 Kobo per ordinary share on the issued capital of 29,431,179,224 Ordinary Shares of 50 Kobo each payable to Shareholders on the register of shareholding at the closure date.
The interim dividend will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at the close of business on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 for ordinary shareholders and on September 3, 2020 for holders of the bank’s GDR. The register of the ordinary shareholders will be closed on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 while register of GDR holders will be closed on September 4, 2020. On Monday, September 21, 2020, dividend will be paid electronically to shareholders.
Among notable issues reported in the Q2 report include Pending Complaints brought forward from prior year at 53 in Q2 2020 worth N328.758 million from 87 worth N329.014 million; Received Complaints of 12,025 involving N342.314 million down from 49,553 complaints involving N173.026 million in Q2 2019.
There were 12,033 resolved complaints worth 377.155 million down from 49,587 worth N173.282 million in Q2 2019. The Unresolved Complaints pending with the Bank carried forward in the period under review were 45 worth N293.917 million as against 53 worth N328.758 million in Q2 2019
The bank said some of the outstanding complaints include complaints on dispense errors on other Bank terminal, failed bill payment, excess charges, etc.
In line with Section 5.1.2 (L) of the CBN Code of Corporate governance, the the bank gave breakdown of fraud and forgeries for the period as 9,662 incidents worth N642.187 million from 7,403 worth N1.025 billion in Q2 2019.
In order to identify with the aspirations of various sections of the society, the Group donated a total sum of N1,713,892,466 during the period out of which N1,671,588,041 was its Community Development COVID-19 Support as against N505,365,414 total donation as at December 31 2019.
GTBank is committed to advancing economic growth and sustainable development through active funding and investments in critical sectors such as Agriculture, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Health, Education, Power, Oil and Gas, among others.
The bank said it continued to allocate capital to where they are critically needed especially in supporting the economic diversification efforts of the Nigerian government.
