Only six of Nigeria’s major listed banks paid shareholders a combined N1.27 trillion in dividends for the 2025 financial year, while five other profitable lenders were barred from making payouts after failing to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s prudential requirements.
Findings by Financial Vanguard show that GTCO, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Wema Bank and FCMB scaled the CBN’s dividend eligibility test and declared payouts. Five other banks, despite posting strong profits, were held back by the apex bank’s capital retention policy, rising non-performing loans and other prudential constraints.
GTCO topped the list with N429.83 billion (N12.76 per share), followed by Zenith Bank with N410.698 billion (N10.00 per share), Stanbic IBTC with N63.607 billion (N4.00 per share), Ecobank Transnational Incorporated with $40 million (0.16 cent per share), and FCMB with N14.969 billion (35 kobo per share).
Tier-1 banks, led by GTCO and Zenith, accounted for 81.9 percent of the total dividend payout.
Profits Decline Despite Revenue Growth
The 11 major banks listed on the Exchange posted a combined pretax profit of N6.4 trillion in 2025, down 3.8 percent from N6.7 trillion in 2024. Tier-1 banks recorded N4.15 trillion in pretax profit, a sharp drop from N5.06 trillion the previous year, while Tier-2 banks posted N2.262 trillion, up from N1.602 trillion in 2024.
Gross earnings across the banks rose to N26.4 trillion in 2025 from N23.2 trillion in 2024. Tier-1 gross earnings climbed to N18.2 trillion from N16.9 trillion, while Tier-2 earnings rose to N9.5 trillion from N7.6 trillion.
Access Holdings led the gross earnings growth among Tier-1 banks, rising to N5.5 trillion from N4.9 trillion, followed by Zenith Bank at N4.1 trillion, up from N3.8 trillion. GTCO’s gross revenue edged up to N2.15 trillion from N2.11 trillion. First HoldCo rose to N3.4 trillion from N3.2 trillion, while UBA slipped to N2.97 trillion from N3.1 trillion.
“It’s a Conservative Capital Management Strategy” — CIS President
Fiona Ahimie, President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, said the divergence in dividend payments was driven by differences in capital strength, regulatory compliance and earnings quality rather than profitability alone. She explained that banks which declared dividends maintained strong capital adequacy ratios and met regulatory requirements while still retaining enough capital for future growth. Others, she said, prioritised capital preservation amid the sector’s recapitalisation drive, higher risk provisioning, and in some cases outright regulatory restrictions.
On the implications for investors, Ahimie said income-focused shareholders may shift toward banks with stronger capital positions and consistent payout records, and that banks which suspended dividends could face short-term share price pressure as investors reassess valuations. However, she noted that if retained earnings are deployed effectively, the decision could create greater long-term shareholder value.
She added that the impact on customers is limited in the near term, since a bank’s decision not to pay dividends doesn’t necessarily signal financial distress but often reflects a conservative strategy to strengthen resilience and support lending and digital investment. She expressed confidence that dividend payments would become more stable going forward as most banks meet recapitalisation requirements.
“CBN Stopped the Dividends” — Adonri
David Adonri of Highcap Securities Limited said several banks were barred from paying dividends because the CBN was not convinced of their financial strength after reviewing their accounts. He described it as a stringent move to safeguard depositors’ interests.
According to Adonri, the CBN’s action followed the lapse of forbearance previously granted to banks for partial provisioning of doubtful credits; once full provisioning was applied, some banks lacked sufficient retained profits. He added that some banks also needed funds to redeem pending foreign debt obligations, which would have been jeopardised had they paid dividends instead.
He said the regulatory clampdown would push shareholders to scrutinise their banks’ management more closely and should ultimately boost confidence in the banking industry.
“It Was a Regulatory Push-Back” — Olayinka
Investment banker and stockbroker Tajudeen Olayinka said the inability of some banks to pay dividends stemmed from deliberate regulatory pushback, noting that many of the affected banks had large write-offs from regulatory forbearance that could have hurt their balance sheets if dividends were paid.
He said the CBN refused to approve the dividends by invoking its regulatory authority, even though some of the affected banks had actually proposed to pay. According to Olayinka, the regulator was wary of allowing dividend payments to coincide with the banks’ heavy provisions and write-offs, including exposure from a Nestoil syndicated loan default that has now been fully provided for. He described the current regulatory stance as one that enforces discipline and prudence across the industry.
Why CBN Stopped Some Banks — Kurfi
Mallam Kasimu Kurfi said the CBN Governor explained that banks which failed to clean up their impairments were denied dividend approval. He added that one Tier-1 bank was stopped over its exposure to a foreign subsidiary, which stood at about 20 percent of shareholders’ funds — twice the CBN’s 10 percent prudential limit.
Kurfi said such banks would need to either boost their shareholders’ funds or divest some holdings to comply with the limit before they can resume dividend payments.
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