Business

Access Bank to pay N10.7 billion interim dividend to shareholders for H1 2021

By Salami Azeez

September 02, 2021

The Board of Directors of Access Bank Plc has earmarked a total sum of N10.7 billion as dividends to shareholders for the period ended 30th of June, 2021.

This is according to a disclosure signed by the company’s secretary, Sunday Ekwochi, and sent to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).

According to the notice, the banking giant proposed to pay out a dividend of 3 kobo for each of the outstanding 35,545,225,622 ordinary shares of the company, held by its shareholders, amounting to N10,663,567,686.6

It is also pertinent to note that the proposed interim dividend of 30 kobo per share is about 20% higher than the amount proposed in the corresponding period of last year (HY 2020: 25 kobo). This increase might be attributed to a much improved financial performance reported by the bank during the just concluded half-year period.

Recall that the bank recently released its 2021 half-year results, where it posted a 42.4% increase in its Profit After Tax (PAT) figures. Net interest income after impairment also surged by 56% to N171.4 billion, customers deposit grew to N5.97 trillion within the period, while its earnings per share (EPS) grew to N2.48 from N1.73 recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

What you should know:

The first-tier bank revealed that the interim dividends will be paid electronically on the 29th of September, 2021 to qualified shareholders, whose names appear on the Register of Members as at Thursday, 16th of September, 2021. To qualify, shareholders must have completed the e-dividend registration and mandated the Registrar (United Securities Limited) to pay the Registrar to pay their dividends directly into their Bank accounts.

To facilitate the disbursement of the dividends, the bank announced that the Register of its Shareholders will be closed on Friday, 17th of September, 2021.

Meanwhile, Access Bank Plc closed trading yesterday 1st of September, 2021 with a share price of N9 per share.