Business
LEADERSHIP AND FIRSTBANK’S SUCCESSFUL TRANSITIONING TO ‘CLICK’ BANKING
LEADERSHIP AND FIRSTBANK’S SUCCESSFUL TRANSITIONING TO ‘CLICK’ BANKING
In December 2015, the share price of First Bank of Nigeria Limited was trading around N4.8 band. About seven years later, precisely last December, the value held tightly to N15, growing by over threefold amid general asset and economic doldrums.
The steep rise in the valuation of the financial institution deviates remarkably from the average performance of FUGAZ, an acronym describing the top five Nigerian banks by market capitalisation. In the past seven years, the share prices of the leading banks appreciated by an average of 90 per cent as against over 200 per cent growth seen in FirstBank.
Deflated by the bank’s exceptional performance, Access Holdings, GTCO, UBA and Zenith stocks posted about 60 per cent growth. The performance of the entire banking sector also flattens out when compared with FirstBank, which raises questions about the fundamentals of the bank and its growth trajectory.
In terms of inflation-adjusted return on investment, FirstBank shareholders are among the investors that emerged from the turbulent years with a positive real rate of return. Was it a stroke of luck? Does the market reward poor performance?
Of course, stocks sometimes thrive on mere greater fool theory, thus triggering an asset bubble. But the positive share movement of the premier bank is but only one of the many high growth indicators.
In first quarter of 2023, the bank’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio came down far below the five per cent regulatory threshold, which means so much difference when placed in a historical context. As at December 2015, its NPL ratio was over 45 per cent, a telling reflection of the level of effort that went into cleaning its books in the intervening years. For analysts, the cleanup, which was done without raising fresh capital, explains what disciplined, focused and forthright leadership could achieve.
On cleanup process, the Bank CEO, Dr. Adesola Kazeem Adeduntan, said the institution was “its self-created AMCON”, referring to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria set up in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to buy up the threatening toxic assets of Nigerian banks.
Indeed, what the management of the bank has done in the past seven years is not remarkably different from the role of AMCON, since its creation in 2011, except that the former raised fresh capital for its humongous responsibility whereas the bank did not. Also, the FirstBank experience was internal; and it did face a tougher task in terms of the proportion of its assets that had gone bad.
At the height of the financial crisis in 2008/2009, the NPL ratio rose to 37.3 per cent, from 9.9 per cent on record in 2007. On the other hand, the premier bank was carrying over 45 per cent NPL on its book as at January when Adeduntan took the reins of its leadership as the managing director.
All through the process, the bank did not raise fresh capital for the housecleaning programme, meaning the shareholders’ value was not diluted in the process.
Investors may have also kept in view other impressive qualitative metrics such as pre-tax return on equity (RoE), a measure of net income in proportion to shareholders’ equity, which moved from 0.6 to 17.3 per cent at the end of last year’s financial cycle. Also, pre-tax Return on Asset (RoA) climbed from 0.1 to 1.6 per cent while the cost of risk was also down to 1.7 per cent last year, from 10 per cent recorded in its 2015 financial.
At the end of this month, Adeduntan would have spent 7.5 years in office and he would be 30 months short of the tenure limit requirement. Already, he is the longest-serving chief executive of the institution, which is known for its short-term leadership tradition. Casual observers consider him as fortunate, but deep analysts think differently – the bank has been fortunate to have had him.
The lender, which predated ‘Nigeria’, and played the most active financial role in the structuring of the country’s pre- and post-Independence economy, may have just got its groove back under the current management. The books are clean and the NPL is trending downward, faster than the industry average. But beyond, its top and bottom lines are all out of the woods and climbing.
Its total assets, for instance, have increased by 167 per cent in the past seven years, meaning that its asset size has almost tripled, which also outperformed the industry growth. In terms of liquid asset to total asset ratio, it is also ahead of most of its peers. This suggests that while the quality of its assets has increased remarkably, with the NPL ratio falling by 88 per cent in less than a decade, the bank’s asset growth has not stalled, which speaks volumes about the quality of its risk management approach.
Currently, FirstBank had in its portfolio of about 41 million customer accounts, an extraordinary 276 per cent lift from its 2015 record. The figure is about 30 per cent of total bank accounts held by Nigerian banks. Customer depositors also jumped by as much as 153 per cent to 10.6 trillion.
The growth seen is also robbing off on the bottom line with the profit before tax (PAT) increasing by N137 billion in the period. That translates to over 1300 per cent, probably contributing majorly to the sudden spike in the share of the bank.
Perhaps, owing to its long history dating back to when banks were mostly associated with corporate and public sector financial infrastructure, FirstBank was mostly seen as a go-to for savers and borrowers. But that seems to have changed with its many smart digital channels. For its management, that is deliberate.
“Our goal is to transform the bank from lending-based to a transaction-based financial institution,” the chief executive pointed out.
Yes, its transformation is no longer a dream. From zero share of corporate e-bill payments, it has shoved its competitors behind to take hold of 42 per cent of the market. The bank, in the words of its managing director, has pivoted from brick and mortar to “brick and click”, making payment seamless and a click away for individuals, corporate as well as public entities.
“We have built a very formidable trade and cash management platform that we call FirstDirect, which allows corporate banking customers, from the comfort of their home, to initiate a trade transaction and complete it. You have a single view, giving you an interface where you can add your different accounts and transact,” Adeduntan explained.
FirstMobile, a standalone digital bank, has also emerged as a household name in the financial technology ecosystem. In 2015, when the platform was still at its teething age, its users were about 60,000 a number that soared to over six million (a growth of over 10,000 per cent). That has contributed immensely to the changing tradition of banking with FirstBank, as about 85 per cent of its transactions are now initiated via digital windows.
FirstMobile appears to have hit the bull’s eye in the bank’s reinvention drive and effort to appeal to younger demographics. But the platform itself is merely one of the potpourris of telecommunication-driven initiatives it has taken on to get the young depositors on board. FirstOnline users have also grown from about 90,000 to over one million within the timeframe just as its USSD, which targets feature phone users, is even more successful with users increasing by close to 3,000 per cent in seven years to 14.7 million.
Overall, its digital banking has evolved in both volume and public impression. Ease, convenience and reliability have moved the customer base from its tiny 0.6 million to 22 million.
Indeed, FirstBank is transmuting into a transaction-led institution. Last year, the volume of transactions hit 17 million, 8.5 times what it was in 2015 when it experienced some corporate turbulence. But the growth is not only in volume terms, as its non-interest income ratio hit 40.6 per cent for the first time last year, which aligns with the strategic direction of the current management in weaning the group from excessive credit risk exposure.
Over the years, most Nigerian banks have consolidated their global outlook. FirstBank has led the pack with its 40-year United Kingdom subsidiary, which is bigger than some of its competitor wholesale operations back home. But some of the pro-offshore Nigerian banks had been accused of extroversion and ego-seeking as most of the outposts were nothing but cost centres.
In the past few years, the assumption has been deflated; and the performance of the African subsidiaries of FirstBank is among what could be changing the tide. Before the 2015 change of the guard, the subsidiaries’ operations left had created a gaping hole in the PBT of the consolidated account. Last year, they contributed a combined 21.3 per cent to the group’s pre-tax profit.
But that was not because there was no risk out there. In the heat of the Ghanaian government debt crisis, Adeduntan revealed, FirstBank took the least impairment among Nigerian banks that were exposed to the crisis “not because we saw it coming but because we have consistently done the right thing and adopted best risk management practice”.
There is also a humane side to his management approach. Today, FirstBank is among the highest-paying Nigerian banks and offers the most attractive conditions of service, including training, accelerated career growth and many more. In 2021, its efforts were compensated with the Great Place to Work Award. Today, the once-touted conservative bank is attracting young and upwardly mobile professionals with the average age of its employees estimated at 39 years.
Being the longest-serving managing director of the pre-colonial financial behemoth, Adeduntan has the leverage of time and experience to enforce its transformational agenda. But he had also prepared for the job. At KPMG where he co-pioneered the firms’ financial risk management advisory services, he trained in almost all areas of human endeavors – presentation, people management, business writing and all sorts. On assumption of office, he was bold and firm in his decision to headhunt, institute new work culture, clear career growth blockages and challenged the status quo.
His courageous outing in the past seven and half years has transformed an institution once considered one of least prepared for the age of “brick and click” banking into the Usain Bolt of the emerging financial technology space.
Culled from Guardian Newspaper
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.
*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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