In one of the interesting Stears Business newsroom briefings, Adesola asked me why banks were still profitable during a recession. This meeting happened during the week that banks were announcing record annual profits in 2020, a year that saw companies such as ExxonMobil and Transcorp Hotels record losses.
Banks lend to the other sectors of the economy. They are heavily linked to the fates of the oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing, and other sectors that got negatively impacted by the pandemic. So, it makes sense to expect that the fortunes of the banking sector correlate with those of the wider economy.
But that was not necessarily the case. While companies faltered and struggled, many banks increased their profitability.
How did they do it?
The truth is that every bank navigated the pandemic in its unique way. Today, we would be looking at how Stanbic IBTC did it. Stanbic is interesting
