Top 200 African Banks

Did Nigeria’s banks resist Covid-19? Access, UBA, GT, First and Zenith under the microscope

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Banking Africa

By Ruth Olurounbi

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Posted on November 17, 2021 09:29

A Zenith Bank logo is seen on a sign on top of the bank in Freetown
A Zenith Bank logo is seen on a sign on top of the bank in Freetown, Sierra Leone August 19, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Have Nigeria’s banks weathered the Covid-19 storm? We look under the hood of five of Nigeria’s biggest banks – Access Bank, FIrst Bank, United Bank for Africa, Guarantee Trust Bank and Zenith Bank – to see how the machinery is running, as part of our wider series on Africa’s top 200 banks.

Despite a tough 2020 driven by shocks from the global coronavirus pandemic that crippled most economies, the Nigerian Central Bank says it sees a “broad improvement in all banking system parameters, despite the downside risks posed by the pandemic to the smooth running of businesses,” according to Governor Godwin Emefiele, during the September monetary policy committee briefing in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Access Bank

Last year, the difficult macroeconomic environment made the attainment of financial targets very difficult for several banks, including Access Bank, Nigeria’s biggest lender, according to its chairperson, Dr. Ajoritsedere Awosika.

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