With only one year left for banks to meet the deadline for the new share capital benchmarks, the Central Bank Governor, Yemi Cardoso has expressed satisfaction at the progress being made by the banks to meet the March 2026 deadline. Speaking at a meeting with bankers and business leaders early in the week in Abuja, Cardoso confirmed that most of the tier one banks (Access Holdings, UBA, FirstCo, GTCO and Zenith) have already breasted the tape while the remaining one or two others are well on their way to meeting the deadline. The governor also said that there would be some mergers in the tier two categories while one or two banks will seek reauthorization as national and regional banks.
To meet the new capital requirement, the banks are expected to go for public offers; rights issues; private placements; mergers and acquisitions or a combination of these. Some banks may also have to seek reauthorization as national from international or regional from national status. In terms of mergers and acquisitions, there are indications that two banks – Providus and Unity – are in talks to merge together. Both are national banks, but with a combined market share of less than 20 per cent in terms of deposit liabilities. Providus has a huge Lagos State shareholding just as Northern State governments hold huge interests in Unity Bank. ‘’That’s the only discussions in the market for now for mergers and acquisition; but I won’t be surprised if more candidates join the discussions in the next few months’’, said a senior executive of a bank. Union Bank is seeking to be reauthorized as a national bank from international bank having recently sold its London subsidiary to Fidelity Bank. With this, Fidelity will seek to be reauthorized as an international bank with enhanced share capital.
