Nigeria’s banking sector posted important development in 2024, with whole belongings surging to N170.02 trillion, marking a 39.6% year-on-year enhance from N121.8 trillion in 2023.
That is in line with the State of Enterprise (SOE) Report 2025, which analyzed key {economic} and {financial} indicators throughout sectors.
The report highlights the sector’s resilience within the face of a difficult {economic} local weather marked by excessive inflation and a pointy devaluation of the naira.
Since 2023, the native foreign money has weakened considerably, depreciating from N450 to N1,600 per US greenback, following the international alternate unification coverage launched by President Bola Tinubu in Might 2023.
The coverage successfully ended Nigeria’s a number of alternate charge system, beforehand maintained below former President Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In keeping with the report, the {financial} companies sector’s contribution to nationwide output elevated, with {financial} establishments producing N6 out of each N100 of Nigeria’s GDP in 2024, an uptick from N5 per N100 the earlier yr. This underlines the sector’s rising structural relevance and its increasing footprint within the broader economic system.
When it comes to market exercise, remittance inflows by banking channels noticed a slight uptick from $19.55 billion in 2023 to $19.8 billion in 2024, as members of the Nigerian diaspora continued to assist family and native companies by formal cash switch companies.
The rise of digital {financial} companies was much more pronounced. Level-of-Sale (POS) transactions reached N18.15 trillion in 2024, up 69.6% from N10.7 trillion the earlier yr, signaling a shopper shift away from conventional banking halls and towards extra accessible and tech-driven fee options.
Moreover, digital fee transactions, together with cell banking and on-line transfers, climbed dramatically from N600 trillion in 2023 to N1.078 quadrillion in 2024, reflecting deepening digital adoption and {financial} inclusion.
In keeping with the report, “Between 2015 and 2024, the worth of banking sector belongings recorded a compound annual development charge (CAGR) of twenty-two.1%. Whereas this development displays deepening {financial} intermediation, a part of the nominal enlargement was influenced by foreign money depreciation towards the US greenback through the interval.”
Regardless of currency-related distortions, the sector’s asset base now represents 63.1% of Nigeria’s nominal GDP, up from 52% in 2023, reflecting its continued significance in driving {economic} exercise.
Looking forward to 2025, the report identifies mortgage portfolio enlargement, fixed-income funding positive factors, and digital innovation as key development drivers for Nigerian banks, significantly efforts to spice up non-interest revenue streams.
On a extra optimistic be aware, impairment prices, the prices banks incur to account for potential mortgage losses, are anticipated to say no, suggesting a gradual enchancment in macroeconomic stability and credit score high quality.
