One of Africa’s leading financial institutions, Guaranty Trust Bank, has declared that it made a profit before tax of N165, 14billion ($524.7m) in 2016, representing a growth of 37 percent since December 2015.

The Managing Director, GTBank, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said despite the economic crisis in the country in 2016, the bank was able to grow its retail business by leveraging on its digital technology to deliver superior payment solutions to its numerous customers to make banking simpler, faster and better.

Agbaje stressed that GTBank made a gross earnings within the period as N414.62billion ($1.3bn), from N301.85billion ($959m) in December 2015.

According to the GTBank boss, the growth is due to the interest in income as well as foreign exchange income.

He said, “The bank’s loan book also grew 16 per cent, from the NGN 1.37trn ($4.4bn) recorded in December 2015 to NGN 1.59trn ($5.1bn) in December 2016, with corresponding growth in total deposits increasing 29 per cent, to NGN 2.11trn ($6.7bn).

“Likewise, the bank’s balance sheet remained strong with a 19.7 per cent growth in total assets and contingents, reaching NGN 3.70trn ($11.8bn) at the end of December 2016, while shareholders’ funds reached NGN 504.9bn ($1.6bn). The bank’s non-performing loans remained low at 3.29 per cent – below the regulatory threshold of 3.66 per cent, with adequate coverage of 131.79 per cent. Against the backdrop of this result, return on equity (ROE) and return on assets closed at 35.96 per cent and 5.85 per cent respectively.”

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