Nigeria's Zenith Bank loses 200.5 mln naira to fraud, forgeries

Nigeria's Zenith Bank has said that it recorded about 200.52 million naira loss to fraud and forgeries in its operations last year.

Ovia, Zenith Bank chairman

In its corporate governance report, the bank reported about five fraud cases committed by the bank’s staff members resulted in a 155.73 million loss. This accounted for 78 per cent of losses in the fraud/forgeries category.
The bank was said to have recorded 14.04 million naira fraud by staff in 2014, according to details made available at its 25th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday.
For 2015, the bank said it recorded no losses from Automated Teller Machine/electronic fraud and impersonation.
Addressing shareholders at the meeting, the Chairman of the bank, Mr. Jim Ovia, said 2015 was marked by significant global and domestic macroeconomic developments, which impacted the business in many ways.
“But the resilience of our bank has enabled us to successfully weather through these economic headwinds,” he said.
Meanwhile, total deposits for the bank stood at 2.33 trillion naira in 2015, representing a three per cent increase over the previous year figure of 2.27 trilion naira.
Profit before tax also rose by 6.8 per cent, from N107.85bn in 2014 to N115.22bn in 2015; while profit after tax similarly rose by 6.8 per cent from N92.48bn in 2014 to N98.78bn in 2015.
On dividend payouts, the bank said it had declared and paid an interim dividend of 25 kobo per share in the course of 2015 to shareholders. It also proposed a final dividend of 155 kobo per share. This brought the total dividend for 2015 to 180 kobo per share as against 175 kobo per share that was paid in 2014.
The bank said it had adopted an integrated approach to risk management by bringing all risks together under a limited number of oversight functions.

*First published by Punch