Nigeria Leads Africa in Banking Customers, But Trails Continent's Biggest Lenders in Assets


 

NEXVIEW TV NEWS


By Sarki Halima Musa


Nigeria Leads Africa in Banking Customers, But Trails Continent's Biggest Lenders in Assets


Nigeria has emerged as the African country with the largest banking customer base, reflecting significant progress in financial inclusion. However, despite serving tens of millions of customers, Nigerian banks continue to lag behind their counterparts in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria in terms of total assets.


Industry data show that Nigerian financial institutions have successfully expanded access to banking services through extensive branch networks and digital banking platforms. Access Bank leads the continent by customer base with an estimated 60 million customers, followed by UBA and OPay with approximately 45 million each. FirstBank serves about 43 million customers, while PalmPay has around 40 million. Zenith Bank and GTCO follow with an estimated 36.7 million and 32.8 million customers respectively.


However, the 2025 African Business Top 100 Banks ranking by assets presents a different picture. The continent's largest banks by asset value remain dominated by South African, Egyptian, Moroccan and Algerian institutions. Standard Bank, FirstRand, National Bank of Egypt, Absa and Nedbank continue to occupy the leading positions, while no Nigerian bank featured among the top ten.


Financial analysts say the figures highlight an important distinction between financial inclusion and financial depth. While Nigerian banks have excelled in attracting customers and expanding financial services, banks with larger asset bases possess greater capacity to finance large-scale infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and trade projects that drive long-term economic growth.


The development underscores Nigeria's success in expanding banking access, while also highlighting the need to strengthen capital accumulation and asset growth to enhance the global competitiveness of its financial institutions.





#NigeriaBanking #AfricanBanks #FinancialInclusion #BankingAssets 

#AccessBank #UBA #FirstBank #ZenithBank #GTCO #OPay #PalmPay 

#StandardBank #FirstRand #NBE #AfricanBusiness #Economy #AfricaFinance

#NEXVIEWTV #NEXVIEWNews

#BreakingNews #NigeriaNews #BusinessNews #BankingNews 

#CustomerVsCapital

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