Unity Bank to Raise Share Capital to N40bn

By: James Emejo

Shareholders of Unity Bank Plc  Wednesday approved the move by the bank to increase its authorised share capital to N40 billion from the current N30 billion.

The additional N10 billion share capital translates into 20 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo per unit of share.

Speaking in Abuja at its seventh Annual General Meeting (AGM), Chairman, Board of Directors, Unity Bank, Alhaji Nu'uman Barau Danbatta, said despite stiffer competition and stringent regulatory environment in the 2012 financial period, the bank recorded an impressive performance.

He said the bank's overall assets grew by six percent to N375.72 billion from N372.92 billion the previous year while its profit after tax grew by 85 per cent to N6.1 billion from N2.6 billion in 2011.

The bank's gross earnings also climbed to N41.24 billion in 2012 from N34.60 billion the previous year, while its deposit base increased to N270.1 billion in the period under review, from N266.9 billion in the previous year.

He said: "For the financial year 2013, Unity Bank has been repositioned to deliver our strategic objective of significantly growing our size (earnings assets and deposits), improving our efficiency and profitability.

"This will be achieved through cost optimisation and the implementation of the new retirement policy which is aimed at revitalising and rejuvenating the workforce to reposition our bank for the challenges ahead."

The Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Ado Yakubu Wanka, said the bank was at an advanced stage of raising additional Tier-1 capital to enhance its lending and investment capacity.

He said the additional capital would be deployed to branch expansion, IT infrastructure, deployment of more automated teller machines (ATMs) and point of sales (PoS) terminals and staff training.

He added that the bank was well-positioned to take full advantage of the positive developments in the financial sector including the forbearance package to brokers and the introduction of market maker as well as establish mitigants for risks arising from such developments.

He said the bank had achieved the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) certification to enable it carry out ongoing plans to roll out massive retail banking infrastructure including card based-products to its customers.