Wisdom AnwanaMr. Jim Ovia who is the founder and Chairman of one of Nigeria’s biggest banks Zenith Bank Plc is set to receive N9.58 billion in dividend for FY ( financial year ended December) 2020.
Mr. Jim Ovia is a single majority shareholder of Zenith Bank Plc with a bank stock unit of about 3,546,199,395 out of the total bank stock unit of 31,396,493,787 ordinary shares available.
This represents that he has about 11.29% of the bank’s interest.
But then, it is important that you know that such a dividend is constrained to a 10% withholding tax in Nigeria.
It can also be recalled that a few days ago according to the statement released by the Nigerian Stock Exchange that the Board of Directors of the bank bid a final dividend of N2.70 which is N3.00 per share as the total payout for FY 2020.
Refecting on the biding of the FY in 2020, it can be said that the bank still remains well-balanced to perform in the current FY.
But then they have been a decrease in the payment ratio by 40.9% considering 2019’s FY of 42.1%.
According to a source,
Key earnings drivers to the Finacial year performance were a 90 bps drop in the cost of funds to 2.1%, which propelled net interest income (+12.2% YoY) and a 3.8x jump in revaluation gains to N43.4 billion.
These offset pressures from operating costs (the cost to income ratio rose 1.2ppts to 50.0%) and impairment charges (cost of risk rose 40bps to 1.5%).
Jim Ovia is named the Godfather of banking in Nigeria by Forbes because of his leadership skill, especially in the banking sector.
Zenith Bank was the first bank to have a website in 1995 due to the interest of Jim Ovia in technology which also enables the company to migrate from operating analog to operating digital.
According to the report from Nariametric,
From a single branch in a residential building, Zenith Bank now has hundreds of branches all over Nigeria and several subsidiaries in other countries. The bank became a Public Limited Company in 2001 and was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), and later on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
On the 27th of April 2007, Zenith Bank Plc became the first Nigerian bank in 25 years to be licensed by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), giving rise to Zenith Bank UK Limited
Conclusion
Mr. Jim Ovia who is the founder of Zenith Bank Plc is set to receive N9.58 billion in dividend for FY 2020.
He has been a leading founder in the banking industry of Nigeria as Forbe even named him the Godfather of banking in Nigeria.
James steller
