Sterling Financial Holdings is restarting dividend payments after a one-year pause, with net profit for 2024 leaping by more than twofold to N43.7 billion.
The banking group halted the payment of cash rewards to shareholders for 2023, the year it transitioned into a holding company, after post-tax profit only grew by 11.8 per cent, the weakest rate by any Nigerian public-quoted bank.
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Shareholders will get N0.18 per share in cash distribution for last year, Sterling Financial Holdings stated in a Thursday regulatory disclosure at the Nigerian Exchange, putting the total dividend at N9.4 billion. That is 20 per cent higher than its last payout.
“On 11th July 2025 dividend will be paid electronically to shareholders whose names appear on the Register of Members as at 1st July 2025,” the document said.
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Gross earnings for 2024 increased by more than half to N337.2 billion as shown in the group’s recently released audited report.
Net interest income expanded by 61.7 per cent to N134.8 billion, reflecting a strong growth in how much the lender earned from generating interest after deducting what it paid to depositors.
Fees and commission income increased to N44.3 billion from N35 billion a year earlier.
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The group which, apart from its commercial banking division Sterling Bank, also runs a non-interest banking subsidiary called Alternative Bank Limited, witnessed a 24.7 per cent decline in net trading income. That followed a sharp slide in foreign exchange trading and foreign exchange revaluation gain.
READ ALSO: 2024: Nigerian banks struggle through mergers, reforms
It incurred less expense on credit loss as the provision the lender made for loans that have become toxic as a result of prolonged default dropped to N10.8 billion from N12.3 billion.
Other operating expenses soared by 47 per cent to N87.4 billion, partly driven by an 111.8 per cent surge in administrative expenses.
Pre-tax profit for the period increased by 102.1 per cent, while profit after tax climbed to N43.7 billion from N21.6 billion.
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