WEMA bank to diversiify it's investment potfolio into mining, blue economy and electric Industry

As part of its attempts to diversify its investment portfolio, Wema Bank Plc is looking into prospects in the electricity industry and the blue economy, including mining, according to Mr. Moruf Oseni, MD/CEO. 

Managing Director and CEO Moruf Oseni gave the update at the group's FY 2025 analyst and investor conference call. Chief Risk Officer Sylvanus Eneche addressed striking a balance between expansion and risk management in response to inquiries about providing shareholder value following mandated capital limitations.

We need to utilize the enormous capital that has come in; but, we are selective in the assets we invest in, being risk-aware," he stated.

 

He stated that the bank sees prospects in the electricity industry and the blue economy, and that it has begun to position itself to participate in those markets.

What executives are saying:

In addition to these industries, the bank's Chief Risk Officer stated that it is evaluating prospective agreements with larger counterparties with whom it has not before worked.

He stated that any capital deployment to such players will be done selectively, with an ongoing emphasis on risk controls and asset quality.

"We are looking at larger A-tier players we have not engaged before, and we are set to deploy capital to them in a risk-aware manner, leveraging the opportunities," he stated.

On tier-one objectives, Managing Director and CEO Moruf Oseni stated that the bank's growth has been consistent, as seen by its financial results.

"To pole vault ourselves into tier one, we will grow organically and efficiently, and we are also looking for opportunities to scale up operations within the bank," he said.

He also stated that reaching tier-one classification is a priority, with a two to three-year schedule considered possible provided ongoing initiatives yield as predicted.

He also stated that the bank's long-term objectives go beyond tier one, with customer deposits rising from N804 billion in 2020 to N3.2 trillion in 2025. 

Get up to speed Wema Bank Plc's audited results for the fiscal year 2025 showed a profit before tax of N221.8 billion, which was roughly consistent with the unaudited figure of N222 billion. 

The audited performance increased by 116.44% from N102.5 billion in 2024, mostly due to increasing interest income, which remains the principal source of earnings. 

Interest income increased to N576 billion from N354.6 billion, with loans and advances accounting for 60.4%, investment securities for 35.5%, and cash holdings for the remainder.

Non-interest revenue was boosted by net gains on fair value investment securities of N993.2 million and fee and commission income of N75.5 billion, up from N55.5 billion.

Additional contributions from trading revenue of N8.3 billion and other sources raised total operating income to N420.6 billion, while operating expenses rose to N198.7 billion, resulting in a pre-tax profit of N221.8 billion.

Wema Bank's performance

Wema Bank has had a year-to-date performance of more than 28% in 2026, with over 2.4 billion units traded on the Nigerian Exchange thus far.

The group's total assets are currently over N5.07 trillion, up from N3.5 trillion, with loans and advances to clients accounting for the majority of the asset base at N1.7 trillion.

The bank also met the CBN's N200 billion capital requirement with a N150 billion rights offering, while an additional N50 billion private placement is still pending final regulatory clearances.

Read Also Profit Without Production?  Why Nigerian Banks & Central Bank Must Do More For Businesses.

Open AI to help in Scientific Research and Drug Discovery

OpenAI unveiled a new model this week, GPT-Rosalind, which is custom-built for scientists working on drug discovery, biology and other medical research. Named for Rosalind Franklin, who helped uncover the structure of DNA, the system is aimed at helping to speed up the R&D process. The news follows an earlier announcement of a strategic partnership between the company and Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk, which plans to integrate more AI across its business units.

The new model works as a one-stop interface shop, connecting more than 50 tools used by scientists day-to-day, such as journal articles, molecule databases and predictive tools. It’s also integrated into Codex, the company’s AI coding assistant, to help enable custom workflows.

Life sciences have become a major area for competition in the AI industry, and OpenAI is far from the only player. Nvidia has a number of different platforms for researchers, as does Anthropic with its Claude for Life Sciences. And earlier this week, Amazon launched its own product, Amazon Bio Discovery, specifically aimed at integrating lab work with AI models.

And although GPT-Rosalind is new, OpenAI has been working with scientists for years. Derya Unutmaz, an immunologist who works at biomedical research organization Jackson Laboratory, has been using ChatGPT since version 3.5 came out.

He’s undeniably enthusiastic about its potential, and said that more recent versions have helped him and other scientists in his lab to better understand different immunological mechanisms, which guided their experiments. He’s also using it to help him write a textbook on how T-cells works, and has praised the model’s accuracy.

Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, is also optimistic about using AI for scientific research. He said that his company has integrated OpenAI’s models into its physical laboratory setups, so that the AI can automatically design, execute and iterate scientific experiments. It’s also integrated agents into its Cloud Lab, which allows scientist-customers to use it as an interface to help design and direct experiments.

For Kelly, the most exciting potential of AI is a future where every scientist is essentially running their own lab, directing AI agents to do experiments for them. “It’s going to be that you come in in the morning, have your coffee, and look at the data from your experiments the night before,” he said, rather than manually putting things into test tubes or cell cultures.

this often happens in small, compounding ways, not necessarily all in one swoop. “If we can help the world do the next 25 years of science in five instead, we could be sitting here in 2030 with the tools that we would have otherwise had in 2050,” he said. “That’s an awesome place to be.”