Wema Bank Plc’s profit after tax rose 72.6% to N219.84 billion in the nine months to September 30, from N127.40 billion a year earlier, according to its unaudited financial statements.
That is 13.1% more than the bank earned in the whole of 2025. Pretax profit rose 76.6% to N258.64 billion. Third-quarter profit after tax was N88.47 billion, about 30% higher than in the second quarter, on MoneyCentral calculations.
Faster lending made up for falling yields as gross earnings rose 45.7% to N673.24 billion, and interest income increased 37.2% to N543.56 billion.
Meristem Securities said in an earnings flash that asset yields fell 405 basis points to 8.88%.
Loans to customers grew 44.5% this year to N2.51 trillion, while deposits rose 17.4% to N3.86 trillion. That lifted the loan-to-deposit ratio to about 65% from 53%, according to MoneyCentral calculations. Net interest income rose 38.3% to N325.88 billion.
Non-interest income nearly doubled to N129.68 billion as net trading income more than quadrupled to N46.08 billion, and FX transaction income swung to a gain of N6.17 billion from a loss of N8.68 billion.
Operating income rose 52.7% to N437.02 billion, much faster than the 27.7% rise in operating expenses to N178.38 billion. As a result, the cost-to-income ratio fell to 40.8% from 48.8%, on MoneyCentral calculations.
Shareholders saw little of the gain per share however. Earnings per share fell 1.1% to N7.31, because the weighted average share count rose to 40.12 billion after Wema’s recapitalisation, which included a rights issue of 14.29 billion shares at N10.45 each.
Annualised return on average equity was about 41.6%, on MoneyCentral calculations, and equity rose 27.3% to N790.13 billion.
There are signs of pressure beneath the strong results.
Third-quarter impairments of N13.50 billion were about 73% of the nine-month total, which suggests rising credit costs as the fast-growing loan book matures. Loans are also growing more than twice as fast as deposits.
Further rate cuts at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on November 23-24 could push asset yields down faster than funding costs. Meristem’s figures show cost of funds down only 38 basis points to 5.44%.
Wema Bank shares closed at N32.00 on October 30, which values the bank at about N1.28 trillion.
That is about 1.83 times book value, on MoneyCentral calculations, and 11.1% below the 52-week high of N36.00, Bloomberg data shows.
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