Top Nigerian banks successfully raise capital ahead of deadline says SEC

Five of Nigeria’s largest banks have successfully issued fresh capital to meet tough new regulatory requirements, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said, comfortably beating a 2026 deadline.

Lenders including Guaranty Trust Holdings Plc, the West African nation’s largest bank by market capitalization, raised a total of 1.26 trillion naira ($770 million) in the last two months to meet requirements for up to a 10-fold increase in regulatory capital.

“The banks that came to the market are fully subscribed and even oversubscribed,” SEC Director General Emomotimi Agama said in an interview Friday in Lagos, the nation’s commercial hub.
The other lenders were Zenith Bank Plc, Access Holdings Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and FCMB Group Plc. The Central Bank of Nigeria in March gave the nation’s 27 commercial banks two years to meet the new capital thresholds.

Nigeria’s NGX banking Index has risen 4.2% this year, driven by the biggest lenders including Guaranty, whose stock is up by around 23%.

“The young people are beginning to embrace the market and we’re excited about it,” Agama said. “We want to make sure domestic investors particularly are more involved in the market.”

The SEC in July approved NGX Invest, a digital platform initiated by the stock exchange, which the banks used to pitch their share offers with the goal of attracting young investors.