Big spenders: Nigeria’s Tier 1 banks and your deposits

Today, Nigeria has 22 commercial banks. 

However, there are five key ones. We typically refer to them as the Tier-1 or FUGAZ banks. FUGAZ is an acronym for the quintet of First Bank, UBA, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank.  

They lead the pack in terms of the value of loans lent to borrowers and customer deposits. 

A glance at the financial statements reveals that the quintet is among the six most profitable banks. There is one outsider in their midst—Stanbic IBTC Holdings (“Stanbic Holdings”), which reports higher profits than Access Bank, FBN and UBA.
 

However, Stanbic Holding’s appearance among the most profitable banks is misleading. As the name implies, Stanbic Holdings is not the same entity as Stanbic IBTC