United Bank of Africa (UBA) incurred N4.94 billion as travel expenses in 2020, a sizable chunk of the N12.2 billion incurred by ten banks quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as travel expenses in 2020.
Analysts wondered how so much was spent during a pandemic year.
This represents a 38.7 per cent drop from the N19.8 billion spent in the same period in 2019 by the affected banks, and is much lower than the N22.56 billion recorded in 2018. These were obtained from the banks’ financial reports.
The banks are GTBank, Zenith Bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA), First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN), Fidelity Bank Plc, Wema Bank, Stanbic IBTC, FCMB, and Sterling Bank Plc.
At the top is UBA which incurred N4.94 billion as against N7.06 billion in 2019, followed by FBN with N3.67 billion as against N6.78 billion in 2019.
FBN is the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. It has other companies under its umbrella, including FBNQuest Capital Ltd, FBNQuest Securities Ltd, FBNQuest Capital Asset Management Ltd, etc.
The third on the highest travel list is Zenith Bank with N1.882 billion in 2020 as against N2.751 billion in 2019. While on the other hand, Fidelity Bank spent the least on travels in 2020, compared with all of its competitors.
The financial institution spent N217 million in 2020. It also recorded the lowest in 2019 when it spent N317 million on travels.
