The Banker in its 2024 review of Top 1000 Global Bank Ranking has said that “the long-anticipated but painful devaluation of the Nigerian Naira, following a high-profile changing of the guard at the country’s central bank last June, severely affected the balance sheets of the country’s banks in 2023, who were still smarting after the impact of the 2022 Ghanaian debt crisis.
“The devaluation has continued this year and had a ruinous impact on the five Nigerian banks in the latest Top 1000 ranking, which between them shed 22.15 per cent of their Tier 1 capital in dollar terms.”
Unsurprisingly, all five see their positions in this year’s global ranking fall significantly.
In the face of such challenges to banks’ capital positions, it came as little surprise when the Central Bank of Nigeria launched a recapitalisation programme for the sector in March of this year. Zenith Bank and Access Holdings, the country’s largest banks by Tier 1 capital and assets, respectively, both posted a 21 per cent Tier 1 capital drop in their 2023 financial statements, dropping 98 and 155 places in this year’s Top 1000.
Having escaped the impact of the Ghanaian debt crisis relatively unscathed in 2022, UBA again posted a strong performance compared to its peers in 2023, with asset growth in local currency terms across its wider group operations nearly double that of its domestic operations during the year.
