13 Nigerian banks make top 1000 world ranking, lead Africa

For the second consecutive year, 13 Nigerian
banks have made the list of Top 1000 World
Banks ranking.

The 13 Nigerian banks underline Nigeria’s
number one position in Africa as no other
African country recorded up to 13 in the top
1,000 world banks.

Published by The Banker Magazine of the
Financial Times Group London, in its 2014
edition the ranking, revealed that banks in the
world for the first time since the global
financial crisis had returned profit of $920
billion, which is 23 per cent more than their
previous peak of $786 billion achieved in
2007 before the financial crisis.

According to a release by the Country
Representative, Mr Kunle Ogedengbe, the
Nigerian banks, based on Tier-1 capital were
Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank,
Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity
Bank and Ecobank Nigeria.

Others are Skye Bank, First City Monument
Bank, Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings,
Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Union
Bank of Nigeria.

Zenith Bank ranked top in Nigeria at 293 as
Guaranty Trust is on number 415 and First
Bank clinched the 424th position.
Access Bank was on number 532, United
Bank for Africa ranked 539 and Fidelity 622.

It revealed that profit on capital of three
Nigerian banks that were not foreign-owned
subsidiaries increased. These are First Bank
that has its profit on capital increased by
25.32 per cent from 25.13 per cent, Access
Bank from 21.19 per cent to 21.24 per cent
and First City Monument Bank 15.77 per cent
from 15.07 per cent.

Editor of the magazine, Mr Brain Caplen,
noted that the 23 per cent increase in profit
of global banks from 2007 “is a good news
but the better news is that capital has also
increased at a reasonable pace whereas assets
have stayed flat.

“This means that returns on capital are only
slightly improved but the hope is that this
upturn is more sustainable than the last one,”
he said.

Caplen disclosed that a large proportion of
the profit is from China – about 32 per cent
of the total which is more than the next three
highest profit countries of USA, Japan and
Canada combined.

Of the 25 top banks in Africa from the
ranking, the highest of eight is from Nigeria,
the largest economy in the continent while
the United Bank for Africa is the only
Nigerian bank in the top 10 highest movers in
Africa.

In all, Africa has 31 banks in the Top 1000
World Banks 2014 with Nigeria having 13
representing 41.94 per cent. The 31 African
banks in the ranking are from nine countries:
Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Angola, Gabon,
Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Togo.
Globally, Senior Editor of the magazine, Philip
Alexander stressed that banks in this 2014
ranking “are stronger than ever” as “the level
of capital held by banks in this ranking
continues to accelerate, with the minimum
Tier 1 capital required to enter the Top 1000
World Banks now fast approaching
$400million. This has almost doubled since
the 2005 ranking”, he added.