Market News

Ahead of the Central Bank's March deadline, banks must decide whether to raise fresh capital, merge with rivals, or prepare for acquisition.

For Nigerian banks, March 26, 2026 looms large on the horizon. That is when they must show they’ve met the new capital requirements set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for lenders operating in the country.

In March 2024, banks were given two years by the financial system regulator to meet the new targets. The banks with both local and international operations were required to have minimum capital of 500bn naira, while those that operated only nationally need to have 200bn naira. Minimum capital for regional and merchant banks was set at 50bn naira, with non-interest banks required to have 20bn naira, if functioning nationally, and 10bn naira if functioning regionally.

The exercise is the first time in two decades that Nigerian banks have been asked to raise fresh capital. The last time was in 2004, when the maximum amount of capital for banks was set at 25 billion naira.

That target it no longer deemed adequate given repeated currency devaluation and sustained inflation that has eroded the capital base of banks. President Bola Tinubu’s decision to end decades of fuel subsidies and float the naira exchange rate on taking office in 2023 have further accelerated the need for stricter targets