Nigeria, March 24 -- United Bank for Africa (UBA) posted its biggest net profit on record for the financial year 2024 as the interest income of the pan-African lender expanded more than twofold, its audited account issued on Monday showed.

After-tax profit was up by 26.1 per cent at N766.6 billion, compared to N607.7 billion a year earlier.

Shares in UBA had jumped 5 per cent as of 12.47 WAT in Lagos following the announcement the lender will hand shareholders N3 per share in final dividend, bringing its potential total dividend for the year to N5 per unit and total payout to record N171 billion.

Like many other lenders in Nigeria, UBA leveraged the Central Bank of Nigeria's aggressive monetary policy tightening, which scaled up the be...