Zenith Bank Plc has posted a decline in profit after tax to ₦532.18 billion for the first six months of the year, compared to ₦577.997 billion it recorded in the same period in 2024.
The bank disclosed this in its 2025 interim financial statement released on Thursday, September 18.
Pinnacle Daily review of the Zenith Bank’s half-year performance shows that profit after tax dropped by 7.93 per cent.
The decline in its financial growth was buffeted by a significant drop in its trading gains.
Put simply, a trading gain is a profit made from the buying and selling of securities or other financial instruments that a company holds for a short-term purpose, not as a core part of its regular business operations.
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According to Zenith Bank, its net trading gain comprises gains less losses relating to trading assets and liabilities and includes all fair value changes, interest, dividends and foreign exchange differences.
Analysis of the report showed that Zenith Bank’s trading gains declined by 41.20 per cent to ₦467.79 billion in the half-year of 2025 compared to ₦795.57 billion it recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
The decline it recorded in trading in assets and other securities, despite a reduced company income tax of ₦93.45 billion from ₦149.03 billion in 2024, resulted in a ₦45.82 billion drop in profit for the year to ₦532.18 billion relative to the half-year of 2024.
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Items in the trading gains comprise gains on other trading books, treasury bills, bonds, and interest income on trading bonds.
Gains from other trading books, inclusive of derivatives and foreign currency trading, dropped to ₦483.22 billion from ₦871.64 billion in 2024.
The bank sustained losses on treasury bills transactions amounting to ₦22.64 billion from ₦81.82 billion.
While it gained ₦5.53 billion on bonds compared to ₦2.76 billion last year, however, its interest income on trading bonds declined to ₦1.68 billion from ₦2.99 billion.
Significantly, Zenith Bank’s interest income improved to ₦1.84 trillion in the first half of 2025 from ₦1.15 trillion in the same period in 2024.
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After a deduction of interest expenses, the bank’s net interest income rose notably to ₦1.35 trillion compared to ₦715.07 billion in 2024.
The gain in interest income was not unconnected to the high interest rate environment in which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has kept the benchmark unchanged at 27.75 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Other line items show that the bank’s personnel and operating expenses rose by 16.11 per cent and 23.42 per cent to ₦134.568 billion and ₦411.287 billion, respectively, reducing net interest income gain.
In a regulatory filing on Thursday, Zenith Bank said, “An interim dividend of ₦1.25k for every share of 50k, subject to appropriate withholding tax, will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the Register of Members as at the close of business on the 3rd day of October 2025.”
The bank added that the register of shareholders will be closed on October 6, while the dividend will be paid electronically on October 10.
Pinnacle Daily reports that Zenith Bank had, at the end of December 2024, met the CBN minimum capital requirement, having raised its share capital and share premium to ₦614.648 billion.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
