Zenith Bank Plc has emerged because the financial institution with the very best Revenue After Tax within the 2024 monetary 12 months.
The rating is predicated on a evaluation of the 2025 version of the PREMIUM TIMES Annual Banking Report, launched in October.
The journal, an annual particular print publication of PREMIUM TIMES, Nigeria’s main investigative newspaper, primarily attracts on the audited stories of Nigeria’s high industrial banks and intelligence gathered from the sector.
The most recent evaluation of the 2025 version of the journal reveals that Zenith led others in revenue after tax (PAT) in 2024, recording a 52.6 per cent enhance to N1.03 trillion from N676.9 billion in 2023.
Subsequent got here Warranty Belief Holding Firm, whose PAT touched N1.02 trillion, having surged by 88.6 per cent.
United Financial institution for Africa’s PAT, at N766.6 billion, expanded by a bit of greater than 25 per cent.
As many lenders cashed in on sky-high benchmark rates of interest in 2024 to generate curiosity earnings at a stage by no means earlier than witnessed within the business, the underside line acquired a elevate, a mega one at that.
Added to that, revaluation positive factors, an uptick in non-interest earnings like charges and commissions, and a moderation within the cost-to-income ratio for some banks numbered among the many elements that significantly boosted web revenue.
Past on a regular basis industrial lending, PREMIUM TIMES Annual Banking Report reveals that banks’ huge funding in debt devices like bonds and treasury payments additionally delivered good-looking returns, boosting revenue.
With the 9 lenders coated netting as a lot as N4.9 trillion, implying a 53.8 per cent soar in post-tax revenue over the 2023 stage, it’s evident that banking was maybe the business most inoculated from crushing headwinds like hyperinflation, trade price volatility and steep price of borrowing that raged everywhere in the macroeconomic area all 12 months lengthy.
Telecoms and shopper items had been among the many hardest hit sectors. Many firms right here plunged right into a loss and, in some instances, noticed their steadiness sheets flip crimson.
The PREMIUM TIMES Annual Banking Report brings to mild highly effective however typically neglected traits shaping the business’s outlook and explains their implications for traders, regulators, and the broader financial system.
The report additionally presents a panoramic view of the monetary positions and operations of particular person banks, serving to readers decode the complicated knowledge and visuals contained within the establishments’ monetary statements.
Since debuting in 2021, the journal has turn out to be an authoritative intelligence useful resource for financial-sector gamers, traders, policymakers, regulators, students, and researchers searching for dependable knowledge, insights, and forecasts on the banking business.
About Zenith Financial institution
Established in Might 1990 by the businessman Jim Ovia, Zenith operates in 5 different international locations other than Nigeria, comprising Ghana, UK, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and China, the place it runs a consultant workplace.
It additionally operates a department within the UAE.
The lender has greater than 500 branches in Nigeria, with a buyer base in extra of 33 million as of 2023.
