Six Banks, N1.27trn: How CBN Rules Redrew Nigeria’s Dividend Map
Shareholders of Nigeria’s biggest lenders walked away from the 2025 financial year with a story of two markets. Six banks cleared the Central Bank of Nigeria’s eligibility test and pushed out a combined N1.27 trillion in dividends, according to findings published by Financial Vanguard. Five others, profitable on paper and in some cases record breaking, sent their investors home empty handed.
The dividing line was not profit. It was capital quality, provisioning and regulatory clearance.
Financial Vanguard reported that Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Wema Bank and FCMB declared payouts for the year ended December 31, 2025. GTCO led with N429.830 billion at N12.76 per share, its own investor statement to the Nigerian Exchange Group and the London Stock Exchange describing it as another record dividend. Zenith Bank followed with N410.698 billion at N10.00 per share, made up of a N1.25 interim payment and a N8.75 final dividend. Stanbic IBTC declared N63.607 billion at N4.00 per share, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated $40 million at 0.16 cent per share, and FCMB N14.969 billion at 35 kobo per share. The publication did not itemise Wema Bank’s payout.
GTCO and Zenith alone account for N840.53 billion of the distributions itemised, a concentration Financial Vanguard put at 81.9 per cent of the total. Whichever measure is used, two institutions carried the weight of the entire industry’s shareholder returns.
Beneath the payouts, earnings told a mixed story. The 11 large banks listed on the Exchange posted combined pre tax profit of N6.4 trillion in 2025 against N6.7 trillion in 2024, a decline of 3.8 per cent. Tier one banks fell to N4.15 trillion from N5.06 trillion, while tier two lenders climbed to N2.262 trillion from N1.602 trillion. Combined gross earnings rose to N26.4 trillion from N23.2 trillion, with Access Holdings leading at N5.5 trillion from N4.9 trillion, Zenith Bank at N4.1 trillion from N3.8 trillion, First HoldCo at N3.4 trillion from N3.2 trillion, UBA easing to N2.97 trillion from N3.1 trillion, and GTCO rising modestly to N2.15 trillion from N2.11 trillion.
The freeze traces to a circular dated June 13, 2025, signed by the CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Dr Olubukola Akinwunmi, titled “Temporary Suspension of Dividend Payments, Bonuses and Investment in Foreign Subsidiaries.” It ordered banks still operating under regulatory forbearance on credit exposures and Single Obligor Limit breaches to halt dividends, defer executive bonuses and stop new offshore investments. The circular stated that the measure would last “until such a time as the regulatory forbearance is fully exited and the banks’ capital adequacy and provisioning levels are independently verified to be fully compliant with prevailing standards.”
A follow up letter dated June 20, 2025 set the exit roadmap, terminating COVID era forbearance and SOL waivers from June 30, 2025, temporarily lifting caps on Additional Tier 1 capital recognition until March 31, 2026, and imposing quarterly disclosure of credit exposures.
The consequences appeared in the 2025 books. THISDAY reported that nine banks declared N3.24 trillion in loan loss provisions for the year. Zenith Bank booked N742.19 billion in impairment charges, up 12.97 per cent from N657 billion. First HoldCo took N748.13 billion. Ecobank recorded net impairment losses of N707.52 billion. UBA’s audited results showed a N331 billion loan loss provision, with pre tax profit falling 47 per cent to N423.4 billion from N803.7 billion. Access Holdings crossed N1 trillion in pre tax profit for the first time, rising 16.2 per cent to N1.01 trillion, yet its impairment charges jumped 209 per cent to N287.3 billion and it paid no dividend.
Part of that pressure has been publicly linked to distressed syndicated lending. Multiple outlets, including Nairametrics and Premium Times, reported that indigenous energy firm Nestoil Limited was unable to service facilities estimated at about $2 billion, with exposure spread across UBA, First Bank, Access Bank, FCMB, Union Bank, Ecobank and Afreximbank. Industry data put banks’ total oil and gas exposure at roughly N21 trillion as at the end of 2024.
Speaking to Financial Vanguard, the President and Chairman of Council of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Fiona Ahimie, who was inaugurated on June 25, 2026 as the Institute’s 14th president and its first woman in the role, said the split was “primarily driven by differences in capital strength, regulatory compliance, earnings quality and strategic priorities, rather than profitability alone.” She described the decision by non paying banks as “a conservative capital management strategy designed to improve resilience,” adding that “a bank’s decision not to pay dividends does not necessarily indicate financial distress.”
David Adonri of Highcap Securities Limited told the same publication that “CBN was not convinced that they were strong enough to pay dividends,” explaining that “when the forbearance given banks in respect of partial provisioning for doubtful credits lapsed, the banks did not have sufficient retained profits after application of full provisioning.”
Investment banker and chartered stockbroker Tajudeen Olayinka framed it as “deliberate regulatory pushback,” noting that “most of the banks affected actually proposed to pay dividends.” Capital market operator Kasimu Kurfi added that one tier one bank was blocked over exposure to a foreign subsidiary amounting to about 20 per cent of shareholders’ funds, above the 10 per cent prudential ceiling.
The dividend question sits inside a larger reset. The recapitalisation programme announced in March 2024 gave banks a 24 month window from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2026 to meet minimum capital of N500 billion for international licences, N200 billion for national, N50 billion for regional and merchant banks, and N20 billion and N10 billion for non interest banks. The CBN said on March 6, 2026 that 30 banks had met the thresholds while 33 had raised capital, with industry estimates putting the total raised at about N4.65 trillion. The scale echoes the 2004 exercise under Charles Soludo, which lifted capital from N2 billion to N25 billion and cut the number of banks from 89 to 25.
Asset quality remains the open question. The CBN’s Q1 2026 Economic Report put the industry non performing loan ratio at 9.94 per cent, up 2.43 percentage points from 7.51 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025 and well above the 5 per cent prudential threshold. The regulator attributed the rise directly to the withdrawal of forbearance. It also reported a liquidity ratio of 67.32 per cent against a 30 per cent minimum, and capital adequacy of 13.19 per cent against a 10 per cent floor.
Fitch Ratings has projected loan portfolio growth of about 20 per cent in 2026 as banks deploy new capital, with profitability improving slightly on lower impairment charges. On March 12, 2026, the CBN further tightened credit discipline, barring borrowers with non performing facilities from accessing fresh loans.
For shareholders, the near term signal is clear enough. Ahimie said the outlook “remains constructive,” with payouts expected to become “more stable and predictable” now that most banks have met recapitalisation requirements. Whether that materialises in the 2026 accounts will depend less on headline profit than on how quickly the provisioning cycle clears.