Guaranty Trust Bank plc has released its unaudited financial results for the period ended September 30, 2020 to the Nigerian and London Stock Exchanges.

The 3rd Quarter result shows improved performance across key financial metrics, reaffirming the Bank’s capability to navigate the current economic challenges occasioned by impact of COVID 19 on World economies. The performance reflects its position as one of the leading and best managed financial institutions in Africa.

The Group reported Profit before tax of N167.4billion, representing a decrease of 1.9% over N170.7billion recorded in the corresponding period of September 2019 and an improvement on the 5.2% dip posted in H1-2020 relative to H1-2019.

Loan and Deposit book however grew by 4.5% and 25.1% from N1.502trillion and N2.640trillion recorded as at December 2019 to N1.569trillion and N3.303trillion in September 2020 respectively.

Guaranty Trust Bank’s Balance sheet remained well structured, diversified and resilient with Total assets and Shareholders’ Funds closing at N4.574trillion and N755.5billion respectively. Full Impact Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) remained very strong, closing at 23.9%, while Asset quality was sustained as NPL ratio and Cost of Risk (COR) closed at 6.5% and 0.6% in September 2020 from 6.5% and 0.3% in December 2019 respectively.

Commenting on the financial results, the Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said; “Our 3rd Quarter result is a reflection of how we have appropriately positioned our balance sheet to cope with current economic realities and the challenging business environment.

“It is also testament to the enduring loyalty of our customers, the hard work and dedication of our staff and the unwavering support we continue to enjoy from all our stakeholders in our drive to deliver best-in-class financial services and superior and sustainable returns.”

He further stated that; “As an organization, we will continue to build on our commitment to enriching lives by leveraging our digital-first customer-centric strategy to improve customer experience and maintain a high standard in service delivery, and going beyond banking to create and drive innovative financial solutions that add value to our customers in all aspects of their lives.”

Overall, Guaranty Trust Bank plc continues to be best in the Nigerian banking industry in terms of all financial ratios i.e. Post-Tax Return on Equity (ROAE) of 26.3%, Post-Tax Return on Assets (ROAA) of 4.6%, and Cost to Income ratio of 40.2%.

Renowned for its forward-thinking approach to financial services and customer engagement, GTBank was recently ranked Africa’s Most Admired Finance Brand in the 10th-anniversary rankings of Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands, the pre-eminent survey and ranking of the Top 100 admired brands in Africa.

GTB was also awarded the Best Bank in Nigeria by Euromoney Magazine for a record-extending tenth time and the Euromoney Excellence in Leadership Africa Award for its swift reaction in responding to the Covid-19 crisis and for addressing the impact of the pandemic on its customers and communities.

The Bank has been proactive in innovation and diversification, investing in a range of industries, from insurance to asset management, until 2010, when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stopped banks from running non-banking subsidiaries. Early in the year, GTB announced its intention to restructure as a holding company to enable it to delve into fintech.

A Twitter user with the profile, @tundeleye, wrote:

For most of us in our 30s and 40s, our parents held more assets and were taking care of a lot more people (larger nuclear families plus extended family members) on one hustle. Today, we’re on multiple hustles, hold fewer assets and still struggle to take care of smaller families.

Somehow this tweet threw me back to the “good old days”, when we were less afraid of anything. It’s not as if things were so wonderful then, but it wasn’t as scary as it is now. Then we could go to neighbours’ houses to play and eat without fear; except for the flogging that awaited us at home for eating in people’s houses to show that we “don’t eat at home”. But now, neighbours won’t even offer children food because they don’t want their parents to say they “poisoned their stars” or “transferred their stars” or even “initiated them into marine kingdom”. That’s how bad we have gone today; thanks to the people brainwashing us.

Anyway, like the Twitter writer observed, things seem to be getting harder and harder these days. I don’t know about you but I know that even though things are difficult today, it was not easy then. That our parents took care of multiple people does not mean they were so rich; it could mean they were willing to sacrifice their comforts and dreams to make that of their children and relatives come to pass. Apart from that, some lifestyles we have today do not exist in those days. For instance, then we ate more natural food and we didn’t take food to school. But today, we go for processed foods (some of which are expensive and unnecessary), eat multiple times a day (and even take food to school) and buy all our foods from the market (before, everyone had a farm).

But let’s compare our parent’s expenditure style and that of the present day young parents. I know I was too young to understand if things were too difficult for them or not (you actually understand how it is when you start sponsoring people’s expenditure), but I can tell some things I do today as a parent that my parents forwent.

• Education

I am a product of public schools – from primary to university. I went to school when there were only public schools and a few missionary schools for grooming priests and the religious. Then, it was easy for our parents to pay the school fees of multiple people – including that of extended family members – because the money was almost nothing. From what I learnt, education was at its cheapest during our time; my mother used to recount how her widowed mother had to struggle to pay her school fees and that of her siblings but it wasn’t like that in our time. We were that lucky. But now, we know what is going on. Even the members of extended family want you to send their children to private schools. Paying school fees today is denying a lot of us good night rest. So, let’s not blame the economy yet; it’s possible we are just entering another phase of development.

In case you want to accuse the government of killing the public school system, you need to understand that the public schools of those days that had good facilities were the ones owned by missionaries before they were taken over by the government. Today, those schools have been returned to their owners and the ones built by communities and some political office holders are the eyesores we’re seeing today.

• Agriculture

As I mentioned earlier, in my days, we ate more natural healthy foods, most of which were produced from our farms. Then, it was expected of every man to own a farm (at least in Igbo land). Even when you stay in the city and can’t manage your farm, you sublet it to someone that will cultivate it and then share the produce at a certain ratio with you. Then, staple foods like garri were rarely bought in the market. But today, many people, me inclusive, don’t want to do anything with farms again; we buy ALL our foods from the market. Even the farmlands have been turned into residential houses or factories. Some of us have even sold off the lands our parents left for us to farm so we can use the proceeds to buy garri in the market. What an irony. So, as we calculate how much our parents spent, let’s remember they produced most of their foods. In fact, then, the higher the number of dependents in the family, the more the number of free farm workers.

• Desire for Ostentatious Goods and Luxurious Lifestyle

Our cost of living may actually be increasing because we desire to live in luxury and possess items that display wealth. Today, many of us own phones, which was luxury in those days. But that is not the issue; the problem right now is that the more expensive a phone is, the more we long to have it. Then, our parents buy jewellery as assets but we buy them today to show off. We want to put on the most expensive clothing, drive exotic cars, live in the most expensive parts of the city, go for holidays in Dubai, buy pizza and shawarma everyday (lol) and still live like our parents did. Not going to happen. We paved our own path; we have to pass through it.

The summary is, it wasn’t that easy for our parents to provide for us either. Yes, some changes have been made in the system, especially in the education sector, but that is the only path we didn’t create by ourselves. Any other challenges we are facing today is from our own volition. But then, we shouldn’t see them as struggle, but rather as a stage we have to pass to the next level.