Zenith Bank Achieves Historic Milestones in 2023 With Stellar Triple-digit Topline and Bottom-line Growth Nume Ekeghe Zenith Bank Plc has announced its audited results for the year ended December 31, 2023, achieving a remarkable triple-digit growth
of 125% in gross earnings from NGN945.6 billion reported in 2022 to NGN2.132 trillion in 2023. According to the audited financial results for the 2023 financial year presented to the Nigerian Exchange
(NGX), this impressive triple-digit growth in gross earnings resulted in a Year-on-Year (YoY) increase of 180% in Profit Before Tax (PBT) from NGN284.7 billion in 2022 to NGN796 billion in 2023. Profit After
Tax (PAT) also recorded triple-digit growth of 202% from NGN223.9 billion to NGN676.9 billion in the period ended December 31, 2023. The increase in gross earnings is primarily due to growth in interest
and non-interest income. Interest income increased by 112% from NGN540 billion in 2022 to NGN1.1 trillion in 2023. Non-interest income grew by 141% from NGN381 billion to NGN918.9 billion in the same
period. The increase in interest income is attributed to the growth in the size of risk assets and their effective repricing, alongside the Continued on page 5
Adelabu: FG Carried Over N350bn Unpaid Electricity Subsidy Bill into 2024... Page 32 Friday, April 12, 2024 Vol 29. No 10593. Price: N400
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Tinubu, Buhari, Akume, Obi, Barau, Uzodimma, Others Mourn as Ogbonnaya, 72, Passes On... Page 33
Fubara Now PDP Leader in Rivers, Says Odili
Those disrespecting me will end in disgrace, governor declares Woke slams Wike's critics
Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt Former governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili, has declared Governor Siminalayi Fubara as the political
leader of the state, praising him for defending the interests of the people. Odili stated this at the inauguration of a health facility donated by his foundation to his Ndoni hometown. Odili’s assertion came as Fubara
warned that those currently disrespecting him and his office would someday be disgraced. He added that he would not turn back from his human development projects in the state.
However, former Chief of Staff to incumbent Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, when he was Rivers State governor, Chukwuemeka Woke, slammed those criticising his former principal over the
statements he made during a recent media chat about the political situation in the state. Woke spoke during a stakeholders meeting at the Emohua local government council secretariat. Odili, who served between 1999
and 2007, stated that Fubara, having secured his electoral victory through the ballot and the courts, had become the political leader of the oil-rich Continued on page 5
FG Goes Granular, Defends Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Says No Personal Interest Explains why there was no public tender for contract Project is highway to fraud, waste, Atiku insists Emmanuel Addeh and Chucks Okocha in Abuja The raging controversy over the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway continued yesterday, with the federal government attempting to explain the allegation of lack of transparency in the award and costing of the critical project that connects the South-west to the South-south of Nigeria. Speaking on Arise Television, the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, insisted that due process was followed in the award of the contract to Hitech Construction Company without going through a public tender system. Umahi stated that competence and track record, especially given that Hi-tech was instrumental to the reclamation work on the beach in Lagos, were some of the reasons
the company was picked. Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had a few days ago in a statement stated that the project had exposed the current administration’s alleged penchant for dubious and shady deals. Atiku, in a statement last Sunday, noted that the administration had while making the old project appear new, refused to make public the cost to tax payers. He maintained that the announcement that the project had been awarded to Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech Construction Company Limited (Hitech), an alleged friend of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, without any record of a competitive bidding or a decision by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) smacked of opaqueness. Continued on page 5
TOM IKIMI'S 80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION... L-R: Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), High Chief Tom Ikimi; Governorship candidate of the PDP for the Edo State September 21, 2024 governorship election, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, and his wife, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, and former Rivers State Governor, Alfred Papapreye Diete-Spiff, during a reception in celebration of the 80th birthday anniversary of High Chief Tom Ikimi, in Benin City...Wednesday