The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced 44 lists of licensed deposit money banks in Nigeria.
The apex bank disclosed this in a list released on its official website on Tuesday.
According to CBN, Seven banks, including Zenith Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, United Bank of Africa, Fidelity, and Guaranty Trust Bank, have Commercial Banking licenses with international authorization as of April 26, 2024.
Also, fifteen banks have commercial banking licenses with National Authorization.
Commercial banks with national authorisation include Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Heritage Bank Plc, Globus Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Limited, Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Sterling Bank Limited, Titan Trust Bank Limited, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Premium Trust Bank Limited and Optimus Bank Limited.
Similarly, four banks have commercial banking licenses with regional authorization, and four non-interest banks have national authorization.
Commercial banks with regional licenses are Providus Bank Limited, Parallex Bank Limited, Suntrust Bank Nigeria Limited, and Signature Bank Limited.
Players in the non-interest banking sector with national authorisation include Jaiz Bank Plc, Taj Bank Limited, Lotus Bank Limited, and Alternative Bank Limited.
The bank said the country has six merchant banks licensed with national authorization.
These are: Coronation Merchant Bank Limited, FBN Merchant Bank Limited, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited, Nova Merchant Bank Limited, and Rand Merchant Bank Limited.
The financial holding companies listed were Access Holdings Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, FCMB Group Plc, FSDH Holding Company Limited, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, and Sterling Financial Holdings Limited.
The Mauritius Commercial Bank Representative Office (Nigeria) Limited was listed as the sole representative office.
The list comes months after the CBN raised the minimum capital requirement for all banks in Nigeria to strengthen the country’s financial sector.
The banker’s bank pegged the minimum capital base for commercial banks with international authorisation at N500 billion from N50 billion in 2005.
Also, CBN benchmarked the minimum capital requirement for banks with National Spread (N200 billion), Regional (N50 billion), Merchant Banks( N50 billion), National Non-Interest Banks (N20 billion) and Regional Non-interest (N10 billion).
All banks are required to meet the minimum capital requirement within 24 months commencing from April 1, 2024, and terminating on March 31, 2026.
“The prevailing macroeconomic challenges and headwinds occasioned by external and domestic shocks have underscored the need for banks to raise and maintain adequate capital to enhance their resilience, solvency and capacity to continue to support the growth of the Nigerian economy.
“Consequently, in furtherance of its statutory responsibility to promote a safe, sound and stable banking system and in line with Section 9 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at this moment announces an upward review of the minimum capital requirements for commercial, merchant and non-interest banks in Nigeria”, the circular partly reads.
