Nigeria: Zenith, First Bank lead as Nigeria dominate top 20 list of largest banks operating in West Africa

Nigerian banks once again dominated the table of top banks operating in West Africa. This is according to a report from African Business, as West and Central Africa with tier 1 capital rise by 15% to $2.3bn (N944.19bn) .

Zenith leads the table that includes eight Nigerian banks in the top 10 list of West African banks. Joining Zenith Banks in the top 10 include First Bank of Nigeria, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Ecobank Nigeria, and Fidelity Bank.

Nigeria banks ranking can be attributed to the size of the economy which the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele said by the end of 2021 would have grown by 2.5 percent.

Top banks in Nigerian grew by assets as at June 2021. Meanwhile, in the first six months of 2021, the five largest banks in Nigeria popularly called FUGAZ– an acronym for First Bank of Nigeria, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Holding Company formerly GTB, Access Bank Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc currently have a total asset base of over N39.47trn ($96.2bn), Access Bank has a 25.59% share of the total assets posted by the big five leading the table. Asset ranking is based on the financial statement of the banks submitted to the Nigerian exchange.

Access Bank Plc half-year financial report shows that assets grew by 15.84 percent an equivalent of N1.38trn to hit N10.1trn by June 2021. Access Bank’s N10.1trn asset makes it the country’s biggest bank by asset as of the first half of June. This is followed by Zenith Bank Plc with a total asset of N8.5trn in June this year. This makes it the second-largest bank in the country by asset, according to the data provided on the financial statements of the bank. While First Bank of Nigeria asset hit N8.02trn as at June 2021, from the N7.7trn asset base recorded in December 2020. United Bank for Africa also grew its asset base to 8.34 as at the end of June 2021 up from N7.7trn posted in December.

Meanwhile, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc, formerly Guaranty Trust Bank which is among the country first-tier banks was recently delisted from the exchange and listed as GTCO.

As at June 2021, GTCO assets stood at N5.01 trillion up from N4.94 trillion as at December 2020. CBN spends N538.59m disposing of 1.51 billion Dirty Naira notes in 2020. The Central Bank of Nigeria said it sustained banknotes disposal operations in 2020 to ensure the circulation of clean banknotes.

The naira notes which are unfit and disposed of range from N1000 to N5 note with N500 accounting for 38.2%. The dirty notes were put into 151,427 boxes according to CBN and disposed of with the sum of N538.59 million.