E-Business: Zenith, GTCO Earn Big On IT Upgrade

Leading Tier 1 Banks including Zenith and Guaranty Trust Bank as well as Stanbic IBTC earned a whopping N75.8 billion from e-transactions in the half year period ended June 31, 2024 after spending almost equal on IT in 2023.

Leading the three banks on Information Technology (IT) spending in the period under review was Zenith Bank, which increased its IT spending by 167 per cent to N23 billion up from N8.6 billion.

As the end of half year, 2024 the bank earned N41.2 billion from its e-transactions processing, up from N2.2 bilion in corresponding period indicating 85.6 per cent increase in earnings from e-business.

GTCO spent the highest amount of N36.6 bilion in IT expenses, up from N17,billion in H1’23, indicating 115 per cent increase. However, the deposit money bank well known for its IT savvy managed to rake in N32.5 bilion in half year 2024.

This earning represents a 53 per cent improvement on its N21.2 billion revenue from e-business in corresponding period of 2023. Stanbic IBTC bolstered its e-business infrastructure with N15.8 billion expenditure for the period, a 110.6 percent increase from N7.5 billion.

But the bank ended up flat with mere N2.1 bilion revenue at the end of half year, 2024. In other words, the bank’s revenue from e-business remained unchanged in the period under review.

The three banks’ e-business earnings include income from transactions carried out by their customers on digital platforms such as Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), mobile banking and payments, Internet banking, Point of sale (POS) terminals and Electronic funds transfer (EFT).

As the Christmas season approaches, it is expected that there would be significant improvement on earnings through these platform going by heavy transactions generated usually carried out by customers in the yuletide season.