Business
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, Not Interested in 2023 Presidential Race
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, Not Interested in 2023 Presidential Race
Why Powerful Nigerians Are Rooting For Him
No doubt, President Muhammadu Buhari bears, like a badge, an indecipherable flame of affection for the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele. Honestly, his love for Emefiele resonates, even as you read, as a melody of faith whose mutuality and passionate intensity appear to make it untarnished and priceless.
Of course, this can, however, be attributed to Emefiele’s undisguised passion for Nigeria and Nigerians.
There is no gainsaying that the Delta State-born banker has lived a remarkable and eventful life. Despite rising from humble beginnings to assume leadership of the nation’s apex banking institution, he has remained humble and uncompromising of his values. He has maintained a culture of unflinching uprightness and unwavering commitment to the collective good and has remained a staunch patriot and advocate of the common man. This, among others, guarantees his place in the pantheon of Nigeria’s finest citizens.
But, rumour is that alchemy of quiet malice by which mischief-makers concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles. No wonder why the CBN governor is perplexed that his name is now being thrown up as a possible candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
For the past few days, there had been a groundswell of speculations that some of Nigeria’s most powerful and wealthiest businessmen and governors within the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are pushing for the candidacy of a neutral south-south person, preferably, a technocrat in the 2023 Presidential election. This powerful coalition reportedly met in Abuja and Lagos days apart to decide on a president who understands the ease of doing business, the plight of the private sector, and the undercurrents of international business in the 21st Century.
The CBN governor was unanimously pinpointed as the ideal man. One of the reasons reportedly being adduced for his choice is that he is eminently qualified for the top job especially as agitations for a candidate of South-south extraction continue to gather traction.
Though a Delta Igbo, Emefiele speaks Yoruba fluently. Before his banking career, he was a lecturer in Finance and Insurance in two Nigerian Universities. He holds degrees in Banking and Finance from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and is also an alumnus of Stanford University, Harvard, and Wharton Graduate Schools of Business where he took courses in Negotiation, Service Excellence, Critical Thinking, Leading Change, and Strategy. Before joining the CBN, he spent over 26 years in commercial banking culminating in his tenure as Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank PLC, one of Nigeria’s largest banks.
He is also regarded as a child of destiny because he did not lobby for his elevation as Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank. Neither did he lobby the PDP government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, which appointed him CBN governor in 2014. Interestingly, despite being a PDP appointee, he was retained by the new APC government of President Buhari. To underscore how much confidence the president reposes in him, he reappointed Emefiele for a second term of five years as CBN governor in May 2019.
Sources close to the president said he appreciates Emefiele for helping Nigeria to experience stable monetary policies, even as it did not witness any crude oil windfall, which is the backbone of the economy. Conversely, the oil price volatility impacted not only the country’s revenue base, but the inflow of foreign exchange (forex), stoking currency depreciation, system arbitrage, and consequent policy measures, leading to calls for the devaluation of the naira.
The CBN governor’s ability to hold on to his belief in the economy and not allow the ship to sink on his watch may have also earned him the second term. Also, through his monetary policies and even interventions in fiscal issues over the past seven years, Emefiele has insisted that the country still holds a high return on investment with huge opportunities given its over the 200-million-people market.
Emefiele oversaw Nigeria’s widely acclaimed response to plummeting oil prices, spiraling inflation, significant exchange rate pressures, sharp fall in forex inflows, delisting of Nigeria from the JP Morgan Bond Index, normalisation of U.S. monetary policy, geopolitical tensions amongst global superpowers, and overall uncertainty after the change of administration in 2015.
Indeed, the stability he brought into the system has been attributed to his innovative Investors and Exporters Window worth $25 billion, which liberalised official transactions of forex, as well as the directive to banks to sell forex to customers over the counter for basic travel allowance (BTA) and medical and education bills.
Beyond forex stability, which saw massive accretion in Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves from about $23 billion in October 2016 to nearly $48 billion in June 2018, Emefiele’s policies also significantly helped Nigeria achieve a fast recovery from recession, which was caused by sharp and sustained oil price declines from 2015 through 2017.
In the area of fiscal interventions, the CBN governor sustained large-scale financing of agriculture through the innovative Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which has disbursed hundreds of billions of naira in small loans to hundreds of thousands of peasant farmers, thereby creating millions of jobs across the country. As evidence of the new discipline through tight monetary policies, his tenure has witnessed unprecedented profits in the banking industry, with GT Bank and Zenith Bank leading the way with record performances.
With all these, Emefiele succeeded in facilitating major improvement in Nigeria’s ranking on the World Bank’s Doing Business Indicators through the creation of the collateral registry and credit reference bureaus.
This record of achievements is why the coalition believes that Emefiele is eminently qualified to succeed President Buhari and steer the ship of state aright.
However, sources close to the CBN governor say emphatically that he is not interested in the top job. Rather, he is content seeing through his term and enthroning a Central Bank that is professional, apolitical, and people-focused.
Governor Emefiele, according to sources very close to him, has neither privately or publicly expressed interest or desire to contest for any election. Going by the highlighted fact, a powerful source maintained that, “If the records must be set straight, the Governor that I know is one straightforward individual who does not shy away from taking responsibility for his intentions or actions.
“Consequently, if he is interested in contesting, by now, he would have appropriately put the issue in the public domain without having to cut corners.”
Emefiele, he stressed, by virtue of his antecedents and pedigree is eminently qualified to run in 2023
“Nevertheless, a popular adage says that you cannot shave a man’s hair in his absence. Therefore, if and when he decides to throw his hat into the ring, the good people of Nigerians will be adequately put in the picture.
Business
BUA Foods Records 91% Surge in Profit After Tax, Hits ₦508bn in 2025
BUA Foods Records 91% Surge in Profit After Tax, Hits ₦508bn in 2025
By femi Oyewale
Business
Adron Homes Unveils “Love for Love” Valentine Promo with Exciting Discounts, Luxury Gifts, and Travel Rewards
Adron Homes Unveils “Love for Love” Valentine Promo with Exciting Discounts, Luxury Gifts, and Travel Rewards
In celebration of the season of love, Adron Homes and Properties has announced the launch of its special Valentine campaign, “Love for Love” Promo, a customer-centric initiative designed to reward Nigerians who choose to express love through smart, lasting real estate investments.
The Love for Love Promo offers clients attractive discounts, flexible payment options, and an array of exclusive gift items, reinforcing Adron Homes’ commitment to making property ownership both rewarding and accessible. The campaign runs throughout the Valentine season and applies to the company’s wide portfolio of estates and housing projects strategically located across Nigeria.
Speaking on the promo, the company’s Managing Director, Mrs Adenike Ajobo, stated that the initiative is aimed at encouraging individuals and families to move beyond conventional Valentine gifts by investing in assets that secure their future. According to the company, love is best demonstrated through stability, legacy, and long-term value—principles that real estate ownership represents.
Under the promo structure, clients who make a payment of ₦100,000 receive cake, chocolates, and a bottle of wine, while those who pay ₦200,000 are rewarded with a Love Hamper. Payments of ₦500,000 attract a Love Hamper plus cake, and clients who pay ₦1,000,000 enjoy a choice of a Samsung phone or a Love Hamper with cake.
The rewards become increasingly premium as commitment grows. Clients who pay ₦5,000,000 receive either an iPad or an all-expenses-paid romantic getaway for a couple at one of Nigeria’s finest hotels, which includes two nights’ accommodation, special treats, and a Love Hamper. A payment of ₦10,000,000 comes with a choice of a Samsung Z Fold 7, three nights at a top-tier resort in Nigeria, or a full solar power installation.
For high-value investors, the Love for Love Promo delivers exceptional lifestyle experiences. Clients who pay ₦30,000,000 on land are rewarded with a three-night couple’s trip to Doha, Qatar, or South Africa, while purchasers of any Adron Homes house valued at ₦50,000,000 receive a double-door refrigerator.
The promo covers Adron Homes’ estates located in Lagos, Shimawa, Sagamu, Atan–Ota, Papalanto, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Osun, Ekiti, Abuja, Nasarawa, and Niger States, offering clients the opportunity to invest in fast-growing, strategically positioned communities nationwide.
Adron Homes reiterated that beyond the incentives, the campaign underscores the company’s strong reputation for secure land titles, affordable pricing, strategic locations, and a proven legacy in real estate development.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, Adron Homes encourages Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to take advantage of the Love for Love Promo to enjoy exceptional value, exclusive rewards, and the opportunity to build a future rooted in love, security, and prosperity.
Business
Why Nigeria’s Banks Still on Shaky Ground with Big Profits, Weak Capital
*Why Nigeria’s Banks Still on Shaky Ground with Big Profits, Weak Capital*
*BY BLAISE UDUNZE*
Despite the fragile 2024 economy grappling with inflation, currency volatility, and weak growth, Nigeria’s banking industry was widely portrayed as successful and strong amid triumphal headlines. The figures appeared to signal strength, resilience, and superior management as the Tier-1 banks such as Access Bank, Zenith Bank, GTBank, UBA, and First Bank of Nigeria, collectively reported profits approaching, and in some cases exceeding, N1 trillion. Surprisingly, a year later, these same banks touted as sound and solid are locked in a frenetic race to the capital markets, issuing rights offers and public placements back-to-back to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s N500 billion recapitalisation thresholds.
The contradiction is glaring. If Nigeria’s biggest banks are so profitable, why are they unable to internally fund their new capital requirements? Why have no fewer than 27 banks tapped the capital market in quick succession despite repeated assurances of balance-sheet robustness? And more fundamentally, what do these record profits actually say about the real health of the banking system?
The recapitalisation directive announced by the CBN in 2024 was ambitious by design. Banks with international licences were required to raise minimum capital to N500 billion by March 2026, while national and regional banks faced lower but still substantial thresholds ranging from N200 billion to N50 billion, respectively. Looking at the policy, it was sold as a modern reform meant to make banks stronger, more resilient in tough times, and better able to support major long-term economic development. In theory, strong banks should welcome such reforms. In practice, the scramble that followed has exposed uncomfortable truths about the structure of bank profitability in Nigeria.
At the heart of the inconsistency is a fundamental misunderstanding often encouraged by the banks themselves between profits and capital. Unknown to many, profitability, no matter how impressive, does not automatically translate into regulatory capital. Primarily, the CBN’s recapitalisation framework actually focuses on money paid in by shareholders when buying shares, fresh equity injected by investors over retained earnings or profits that exist mainly on paper.
This distinction matters because much of the profit surge recorded in 2024 and early 2025 was neither cash-generative nor sustainably repeatable. A significant portion of those headline banks’ profits reported actually came from foreign exchange revaluation gains following the sharp fall of the naira after exchange-rate unification. The industry witnessed that banks’ holding dollar-denominated assets their books showed bigger numbers as their balance sheets swell in naira terms, creating enormous paper profits without a corresponding improvement in underlying operational strength. These gains inflated income statements but did little to strengthen core capital, especially after the CBN barred banks from using FX revaluation gains for dividends or routine operations. In effect, banks looked richer without becoming stronger.
Beyond FX effects, Nigerian banks have increasingly relied on non-interest income fees, charges, and transaction levies to drive profitability. While this model is lucrative, it does not necessarily deepen financial intermediation or expand productive lending. High profits built on customer charges rather than loan growth offer limited support for long-term balance-sheet expansion. They also leave banks vulnerable when macroeconomic conditions shift, as is now happening.
Indeed, the recapitalisation exercise coincides with a turning point in the monetary cycle. The extraordinary conditions that supported bank earnings in 2024 and 2025 are beginning to unwind. Analysts now warn that Nigerian banks are approaching earnings reset, as net interest margins the backbone of traditional banking profitability, come under sustained pressure.
Renaissance Capital, in a January note, projects that major banks including Zenith, GTCO, Access Holdings, and UBA will struggle to deliver earnings growth in 2026 comparable to recent performance.
In a real sense, the CBN is expected to lower interest rates by 400 to 500 basis points because inflation is slowing down, and this means that banks will earn less on loans and government bonds, but they may not be able to quickly lower the interest they pay on deposits or other debts. The cash reserve requirements are still elevated, which does not earn interest; banks can’t easily increase or expand lending investments to make up for lower returns. The implications are significant. Net interest margin, the difference between what banks earn on loans and investments and what they pay on deposits, is poised to contract. Deposit competition is intensifying as lenders fight to shore up liquidity ahead of recapitalisation deadlines, pushing up funding costs. At the same time, yields on treasury bills and bonds, long a safe and lucrative haven for banks are expected to soften in a lower-rate environment. The result is a narrowing profit cushion just as banks are being asked to carry far larger equity bases.
Compounding this challenge is the fading of FX revaluation windfalls. With the naira relatively more stable in early 2026, the non-cash gains that once flattered bank earnings have largely evaporated. What remains is the less glamorous reality of core banking operations: credit risk management, cost efficiency, and genuine loan growth in a sluggish economy. In this new environment, maintaining headline profits will be far harder, even before accounting for the dilutive impact of recapitalisation.
That dilution is another underappreciated consequence of the capital rush. Massive share issuances mean that even if banks manage to sustain absolute profit levels, earnings per share and return on equity are likely to decline. Zenith, Access, UBA, and others are dramatically increasing their share counts. The same earnings pie is now being divided among many more shareholders, making individual returns leaner than during the pre-recapitalisation boom. For investors, the optics of strong profits may soon give way to the reality of weaker per-share performance.
Yet banks have pressed ahead, not only out of regulatory necessity but also strategic calculation.
During this period of recapitalization, investors are interested in the stock market with optimism, especially about bank shares, as banks are raising fresh capital, and this makes it easier to attract investments. This has become a season for the management teams to seize the moment to raise funds at relatively attractive valuations, strengthen ownership positions, and position themselves for post-recapitalisation dominance. In several cases, major shareholders and insiders have increased their stakes, as projected in the media, signalling confidence in long-term prospects even as near-term returns face pressure.
There is also a broader structural ambition at play. Well-capitalised banks can take on larger single obligor exposures, finance infrastructure projects, expand regionally, and compete more credibly with pan-African and global peers. From this perspective, recapitalisation is not merely about compliance but about reshaping the competitive hierarchy of Nigerian banking. What will be witnessed in the industry is that those who succeed will emerge larger, fewer, and more powerful. Those that fail will be forced into consolidation, retreat, or irrelevance.
For the wider economy, the outcome is ambiguous. Stronger banks with deeper capital buffers could improve systemic stability and enhance Nigeria’s ability to fund long-term development. The point is that while merging or consolidating banks may make them safer, it can also harm the market and the economy because it will reduce competition, let a few banks dominate, and encourage them to earn easy money from bonds and fees instead of funding real businesses. The truth be told, injecting more capital into the banks without complementary reforms in credit infrastructure, risk-sharing mechanisms, and fiscal discipline, isn’t enough as the aforementioned reforms are also needed.
The rush as exposed in this period, is that the moment Nigerian banks started raising new capital, the glaring reality behind their reported profits became clearer, that profits weren’t purely from good management, while the financial industry is not as sound and strong as its headline figures. The fact that trillion-naira profit banks must return repeatedly to shareholders for fresh capital is not a sign of excess strength, but of structural imbalance.
With the deadline for banks to raise new capital coming soon, by 31 March 2026, the focus has shifted from just raising N500 billion. N200 billion or N50 billion to think about the future shape and quality of Nigeria’s financial industry, or what it will actually look like afterward. Will recapitalisation mark a turning point toward deeper intermediation, lower dependence on speculative gains, and stronger support for economic growth? Or will it simply reset the numbers while leaving underlying incentives unchanged?
The answer will define the next chapter of Nigerian banking long after the capital market roadshows have ended and the profit headlines have faded.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can be reached via: [email protected]
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