In September 2021 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele said he was optimistic that “by the end of the year, our economy will not only close the output gap brought about by the 2020 recession… we would end the year with an annual GDP growth of between 2.5% and 3% up from -1.92% in 2020”.
He added that economic damage to businesses was containable: “Our non-performing ratio in the banking industry in July 2021 stood at 5.4%, reflecting continued improvement from 6% in September 2020.”
The CBN reports that the banking sector capital adequacy ratio (15.5%) and the liquidity ratio (41.3%) have remained above prudential limits.
On 14 September CBN announced plans to launch a Nigerian International Financial Centre in the coming 12 months. This comes weeks after positive news stories in July of backing from the City of London for Kenya’s Nairobi International Financial Centre and £132m ($183m) of new UK investments into Kenya.
For the size of its economy, Nigeria’s quality banks do not feature very high in our overall ranking of Africa’s Top 100 Banks in 2021. Top regional bank is again Zenith Bank, up from #14 last year to #13 with tier 1 capital up 15% to $2.3bn.
The Top 100 Banks survey ranks the banks according to their Tier 1 capital. This consists of: capital + reserves + retained earnings + minority interests. These are published in local currencies and then converted into US dollars at the exchange rates at the year-end date in the results (or on 31 December 2020), so changing FX rates can affect the ranking.
We collect the data from Bankers’ Almanac, Moody’s Analytics BankFocus and the in-house research of African Business, excluding some banks where data is old or unreliable. The table below lists the Top 20 banks in the West and Central African region along with their positions in the continental ranking.
Ecobank rises in the rankings
Togo-based Ecobank Transnational Incorporated rises from #18 to #16 in the continental ranking, with capital of $2bn, while subsidiary Ecobank Nigeria ranks at #37 after an impressive climb from #46, with capital up 20% to $726m, and Ecobank Ghana is at #92, with capital of $235m.
First Bank of Nigeria ranks #17, also with $2bn. Nigeria’s Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Guaranty Trust Bank make a hat-trick, ranking #21, #22 and #23 respectively and unchanged from last year.
Senegal’s Bank of Africa Group ranks #30 and BGFI Bank from Gabon in Central Africa ranks #40.
Ghana scores three banks in the top 100, compared to Nigeria’s 12 banks. These are new entrant Absa Bank (Ghana) at #87, Ghana Commercial Bank (#91) and Ecobank Ghana (#92).
