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Thirty Nigerian banks have satisfied the Central Bank of Nigeria’s revised minimum capital requirements, the regulator disclosed Friday, as a sweeping recapitalisation programme launched two years ago closes in on its March 31 deadline with the sector broadly on track but a number of institutions still awaiting final confirmation.
The CBN said in a statement signed by acting director of corporate communications Hakama Sidi Ali that 33 banks had raised additional capital through a combination of rights issues, initial public offerings, and private placements since the programme got underway.
Of those, 30 have cleared the regulator’s verification process and received formal confirmation of compliance.
The remaining banks, the CBN said, are still working through its routine capital verification procedures ahead of the final cutoff date.
“The recapitalisation programme remains firmly on track and will further strengthen the capacity of the banking sector to support households, businesses, and sustainable economic growth,” the apex bank said, adding that it would maintain close supervisory engagement with all regulated institutions to ensure full adherence to prudential and capital requirements.
The recapitalisation policy was announced on March 28, 2024, when the CBN directed banks across the industry to shore up their capital bases within two years, with specific minimum thresholds tied to each institution’s licence category and the scope of its authorised operations.
The central bank framed the exercise as a structural intervention designed to build long-term resilience across the financial system — and, more broadly, to position Nigerian banks to sustain meaningful lending as the federal government pursues its target of growing the economy to a $1 trillion valuation.
The policy landed at a moment of considerable pressure on the sector. A sharp depreciation in the naira following the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market in mid-2023 had eroded the real value of banks’ capital bases, compressing their capacity to absorb shocks and extend credit at the scale the economy requires. The CBN’s recapitalisation directive was seen in part as a corrective to that dynamic, compelling banks to seek fresh equity rather than rely on retained earnings or regulatory forbearance.
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Progress through the programme has been uneven but ultimately more robust than some analysts had initially anticipated. As recently as February 24, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso reported that only 20 banks had fully met the new requirements — a figure that has since climbed to 30 in the space of roughly two weeks, suggesting a marked acceleration as institutions moved to close outstanding gaps before the month-end deadline.
Total verified and approved capital raised stood at approximately N4 trillion as of February 19, according to Cardoso’s earlier disclosure.
The jump in the number of compliant institutions reflects a combination of approaches. Some banks opted for public capital markets, launching rights issues or IPOs to bring existing and new shareholders into the fundraising effort. Others turned to private placements, securing capital from institutional investors without going through public offering processes.
A number of smaller institutions have pursued merger discussions as an alternative route to meeting the thresholds, though the CBN did not specifically address the status of any consolidation talks in Friday’s statement.
The regulator was careful to distinguish between banks that have raised capital and those that have received full regulatory confirmation, a distinction that carries practical weight given that verification involves the CBN scrutinising the sources and quality of the funds raised — not merely their quantity. Institutions cannot count contingent commitments, subordinated debt beyond prescribed limits, or capital of uncertain provenance toward their required buffers.
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The CBN did not identify by name any bank still pending verification, nor did it indicate whether any institution appeared at risk of failing to meet the March 31 deadline. It said only that the capital positions of the remaining banks were undergoing routine checks and that final confirmation would follow within the recapitalisation timeline.
For the wider economy, the implications of a well-capitalised banking sector extend beyond the financial system itself.
Larger capital buffers typically translate into greater appetite for long-tenor lending — infrastructure financing, manufacturing credit, and agricultural loans that have historically been undersupplied in Nigeria given banks’ preference for shorter-duration, lower-risk assets.
The March 31 deadline holds. The CBN said it would provide further updates as the verification process concludes.
