At N47.5trn, Assets Of Access, Zenith, Three Others Double FG’s N19.7trn 2023 Budget

First-tier banks in Nigeria have grown their total assets size to N47.53trn in the first half of 2022 as Access Bank Holding Plc assets have more than doubled the assets of Guarantee Trust Holding Company (GTCO).

Analysis conducted by THE WHISTLER reveals that tier-one banks assets rose 5.77 per cent or N2.59trn from the N44.93trn recorded by the end of December 2021 to N47.53trn in June 2022.

Nigeria’s five top banks are Access Bank, Zenith Bank Plc, First Bank Holding Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Guaranty Trust Holding Company.

The asset of these five banks is more than twice the size of the federal government’s 2023 budget of about N19.76trn.

The Central Bank of Nigeria had in July said the assets growth reflects the soundness of the country’s financial system.

“Increases in total assets between May and June 2022 are encouraging indicators of increased system soundness and resilience,” CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele had said in July, 2022.

The list of the top five Nigerian banks has remained fairly consistent over time with Access Bank and Zenith enjoying the fair share of dominance.

Over time, Nigeria banks have been linked with mega acquisition of banks in other regions, while some are expanding their footprints outside the continent.

Access Bank had announced buying over BancABC now Access Bank Botswana and Transnational Bank Kenya PLC now Access Bank Kenya.

See Visualization

By the end of June 2022, Access Bank has maintained lead as the lender with the biggest asset totalling N13.19trn, compared to the N11.73trn held by the end of 2021 ending December.

This represents an assets growth of N1.44trn in the first six months of 2022.

Access Bank’s assets growth was driven by its investment securities which rose to N2.76trn, from the N2.27trn held in December, loans and advances to customers rose to N4.19trn, up from the N4.16trn and Restricted deposit and other assets of N2.12trn, from N1.7trn held in December 2021.

Zenith, which had N9.44trn by the end of December 2021, has seen its assets grown to N10.15trn.

Over the six months period ending June 2022, the lenders total assets added N674.9bn, according to their financial statement.

According to the bank’s half year financial statement, the growth in assets is connected to the cash and balances with central bank. This was put at N1.63trn up from N1.48trn in December, Treasury Bills of N2,08trn compared to N1.76trn in December and investment securities of N1.48trn, up from the amount held in December at N1.303trn.

Nigeria’s oldest lender, First Bank, has grown its assets to N9.5trn by June 2022, up from the N8.9trn held in December 2022.

This represents N593.39bn growth in the six months period attributed to the lender’s cash and balances with central banks which rose to N1.64trn in June, from N1.58trn in December, loans and advances to customers N3.38trn, compared to the N2.88trn held in December and investment securities rose to N2.16trn from the N1.95trn as of December 2021.

United Bank For Africa is the country’s largest bank by assets base with N8.99trn as at the end of June.

The bank’s assets base was N8.54trn in December 2021, but multiple asset acquisitions and growth in Cash and bank balances (N1.98trn), Investment securities (N1.63trn) led to the surge.

Among the top five banks, GTCO has the least assets base of N5.98trn, up from the N5.4trn recorded in December last year.

The assets growth was attributed to the surge in Cash and bank balances of GTCO to NN1.03trn, while assets pledged as collateral rose to N123.25bn from N79.27bn in December.