By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
First Bank made about N28 billion from electronic transactions in the first half of 2021 (H1 2021) which rose 32.7 per cent on N21.72 billion in H1 2020, according to its unaudited financial results.
Its e-banking fetches fees and commissions from channels such as mobile apps, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Users of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), internet banking, Point of Sale (POS), and agency banking.
Nairametrics reports that increase in e-banking charges pivoted the growth in overall fees and commissions income that grew 18.46 per cent from N55.78 billion in H1 2020 to N69.08 billion in H1 2021.
The growth came despite stiff competition from challenger banks such as V-Bank and Kuda Bank that have attracted huge funding and expanded their capital base.
Challenger banks offer zero fees as an attractive selling point to poach customers from commercial banks.
According to Nairametrics, the recent amount is the highest First Bank has posted in the first half of the last eight years, during which it generated a total N121.46 billion as e-banking fees.
Other banks
Other banks that have released their H1 2021 results recorded the following e-banking revenue:
· FCMB – N6.69 billion (+54.5 per cent YoY)
· Sterling Bank – N3.6 billion (+39.8 per cent YoY)
· Union Bank – N3.55 billion (-3.0 per cent YoY)
· Unity Bank – N1.57 billion (+23.3 per cent YoY)
· Wema Bank – N1.22 billion (+7.0 per cent YoY)
First Bank posts N38.05b profit in H1 2021
First Bank posted a profit after tax of N38.05 billion in H1 2021 which shows Net Fees and Commissions of N57.4 billion and earnings per share of N1.05.
Nairametrics reported in June the commencement of a flat fee charge of N6.98 on all USSD transactions in Nigeria.
