Accion Microfinance Bank has announced that its shareholders’ funds grew to N5.24 billion in 2019, resulting in a 12 per cent growth from N4.6 billion posted in 2018. The bank’s loan portfolio rose by 15.4 per cent, deposit accounts increased by 13.5 per cent, the number of savers recorded a growth of 3.9 per cent while customers’ deposit increased by 42.8 per cent.
While speaking in Lagos at a teleconference to announce the results of the 2019 financial year, at the 14th Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Managing Director of Accion Microfinance Bank Limited, Taiwo Joda, stated that as part of the activities in the company’s digital journey, it has issued a total of 31,382 cards in the year and 27,042 were activated on their various channels, “cumulatively, the number of ATM cards issued to our customers closed at 104,150 as at December 2019 compared to 72,768 in 2018.”
Joda explained that the bank grew its banking agents to 539 as against 340 agents in 2018, adding that its digital channels in 2019 included USSD, debit cards, mobile banking, NIP, agency banking, “our call center was remodeled and repositioned to improve on our customer experience.”
However, the bank had a lower profit after tax of N915 million as against the N1.05 billion recorded in 2018. Announcing the 2019 financial year results at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, Chairman, Board of Directors, Accion Microfinance Bank, John Fischer, revealed that the bank had invested heavily in digital optimisation in 2019 which led to the decline in PAT but remained confident that the bank’s investment in digital transformation would soon yield the desired impact on the business.
Fischer also announced that shareholders’ funds grew to N5.24billion in 2019 from N4.6billion in 2018, a 12 per cent increase, while adding that Accion MFB has crossed the new capital base of N5 billion for a national microfinance bank as required by regulation significantly ahead of the scheduled deadline for compliance.
He said: “The financial performance shows the resilience and commitment of the board and our people to the growth of the bank. It gladdens our hearts to see transformation of lives and businesses in our customers’ journey with the bank”.
