Nine leading Nigerian banks recorded a combined profit after tax of N4.115 trillion in the first nine months of 2025, marking a 1.5 per cent decline from the N4.176 trillion recorded during the same period in 2024. The banks include Access Holdings, Ecobank Transnational, GT Holdings, FBN Holdings, Sterling Holdings, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, UBA, Wema Bank, and Zenith Bank.
An analysis of their financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2025, revealed that five banks experienced growth in profits while four recorded declines. Collectively, the five gainers, which are Wema Bank, Sterling Holdings, Ecobank, Stanbic IBTC, and UBA, increased their combined profit after tax by 37 per cent year-on-year to N1.753 trillion in 2025, compared to N1.28 trillion in 2024.
Wema Bank led the growth chart with a 299 per cent surge in profit to N172.4 billion, up from N43.2 billion in the previous year. Sterling Holdings followed with a 130 per cent increase to N62.3 billion from N27.4 billion. Stanbic IBTC recorded a 52 per cent growth, rising to N278.5 billion from N182.9 billion. Ecobank’s profit rose by 43 per cent to N702.4 billion from N492 billion, while UBA achieved a modest 2.5 per cent increase to N537.5 billion from N525.3 billion.
However, Access Holdings, GT Holdings, FBN Holdings, and Zenith Bank saw their combined profit drop by 18.4 per cent year-on-year to N2.362 trillion in 2025 from N2.897 trillion in 2024. Access Holdings reported a 2.2 per cent decline to N448 billion from N458 billion, while Zenith Bank’s profit fell by 7.6 per cent to N764.2 billion from N827.3 billion. FBN Holdings recorded an 18.4 per cent fall to N450.9 billion from N533.9 billion, and GT Holdings saw a sharp 35 per cent drop to N699.6 billion from N1.085 trillion in the corresponding period of 2024.
Overall, while mid-tier banks like Wema, Sterling, and Stanbic IBTC showed impressive growth, the profit declines among larger institutions such as GT Holdings, Access, FBN, and Zenith contributed to a slight reduction in the overall profitability of the Nigerian banking sector during the period.
