As banks’ recapitalisation remains about six months to the deadline, 28 banks are now under pressure, with only six listed and two other non-listed banks fully crossing the minimum capital thresholds.
Among the listed banks are Access, Zenith, GTB, Wema, Jaiz, and Stanbic IBTC.
At the press briefing on its July monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed that only eight banks have fully met the recapitalisation requirements.
CBN had, in March 2024, set 24 months with a deadline of March 2026 for all banks to raise their minimum capital to certain levels.
It requested commercial banks with international licences to increase their capital base to N500 billion, national banks to N200 billion, regional and merchant banks to N50 billion, and non-interest banks with national and regional authorisations to N20 billion and N10 billion, respectively.
READ ALSO: Banks’ Recapitalisation in Good Progress Says Cardoso
Of the 13 listed banks on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), only six have so far met the new capital thresholds, while eight banks in total have met the requirements of about 40 banks in Nigeria.
List of licensed banks
Pinnacle Daily can report that the insights provided by the CBN into the country’s banking landscape on Tuesday, May 8, 2024, showed the following list of Nigerian banks as follows:
Banks with international authorisation
- Access Bank Limited
- Fidelity Bank Plc
- First City Monument Bank Limited
- First Bank Nigeria Limited
- Guaranty Trust Bank Limited
- United Bank for Africa Plc
- Zenith Bank Plc
Commercial banks with national authorisation
- Citibank Nigeria Limited
- Ecobank Nigeria Limited
- Heritage Bank Plc
- Globus Bank Limited
- Keystone Bank Limited
- Polaris Bank Limited
- Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited
- Standard Chartered Bank Limited
- Sterling Bank Limited
- Titan Trust Bank Limited
- Union Bank of Nigeria Plc
- Unity Bank Plc
- Wema Bank Plc
- Premium Trust Bank Limited
- Optimus Bank Limited
Commercial banks with regional licenses
- Providus Bank Limited
- Parallex Bank Limited
- Suntrust Bank Nigeria Limited
- Signature Bank Limited
Non-interest banking sector with national authorisation
- Jaiz Bank Plc
- Taj Bank Limited
- Lotus Bank Limited
- Alternative Bank Limited
Merchant banks with national authorisation
- Coronation Merchant Bank Limited
- FBN Merchant Bank Limited
- FSDH Merchant Bank Limited
- Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited
- Nova Merchant Bank Limited
- Rand Merchant Bank Limited
How the banks met the requirements
In late December 2024, the parent company of Access Bank, announced it received regulatory approvals for a N351 billion rights issue, making Access Bank the first lender to hit the N500 billion minimum capital threshold.
READ ALSO: Recapitalisation: UBA Extends N157.843bn Rights Issue by 2 Weeks
The threshold was reflected in the bank’s 2024 financial statements, as share capital and share premium rose to N594.90 billion, from N251.81 billion in 2023.
In its 2024 audited accounts, Zenith Bank indicated that its share capital and share premium stood at N614.65 billion, above the N500 billion threshold.
In a press statement on August 29 this year, the parent company of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) announced that, following its capital injection, the bank has increased its share capital from N138.187 billion in 2023 to N504.037 billion, having raised N365.850 billion.
Also, Stanbic IBTC has met the CBN’s recapitalisation requirement for national banks.
In June 2025, Stanbic IBTC announced the completion of its rights issue of N148.7 billion (2,944,772,083) ordinary shares, of which N140 billion was injected into the banking subsidiary, raising its capital base above the N200 billion threshold.
In a recent disclosure on September 10, Wema Bank announced that it had successfully surpassed the N200 billion threshold for national licensed banks following the completion of its N150 billion rights issue.
The only listed non-interest bank on the NGX, Jaiz Bank, in its half-year financial statements reported that its share capital and premium rose to N28.67 billion from N18.62 billion in 2023, after injecting N10.05 billion.
The current states of the banks’ share capital and premium, which made up the CBN recapitalisation requirements, are expected to be reflected in their half-year results.
READ ALSO: Court-ordered Meeting: Shareholders to Okay Unity, Providus Banks Merger
The six banks have collectively raised about N1.4 trillion in fresh capital, while other banks seem to be on course to meet the minimum capital base.
Pinnacle Daily reported lately that pressures are mounting on tier-2 banks to meet the CBN mandatory recapitalisation deadline of March 2026 which might force mergers and alliances among them as documented by SB Morgen Intelligence, an Africa-focused research firm, in its latest report.
It listed the leading tier-2 banks to include First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Sterling Bank, and Wema Bank.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
