Zenith Bank drops in global rating, maintains presence among top 1000

By Odunewu Segun

One of Nigeria’s biggest bank, Zenith Bank, dropped three places in the latest 2017 The Bankers Magazine’s Top 25 banks in Africa released last night, in the magazine’s 2017 1000 Global Banks.

While the National Bank of Egypt climbed to fifth place, Nigeria’s Zenith Bank which was placed in first position in Nigeria actually dropped from seventh position in Africa to 10th place.

National Daily gathered that the drop was a result of a 25% fall in Zenith Bank’s tier 1 capital, largely attributable to the poor performance of the naira over the review period.

According to the ranking, the bank was also ranked as the 430th bank in the world.

Zenith Bank was closely followed by FirstBank as the second largest bank in Nigeria, 12th in Africa and 567th in the world. GTBank was ranked the third in Nigeria, 13th in Africa and 588th in the world.

Access Bank occupied the fourth position and was ranked 14th in Africa and 628th in the world, while UBA was placed fifth in Nigeria, 22nd in Africa and 832 in the global ranking.

Diamond Bank was ranked sixth in Nigeria, 24th in Africa and 881 in the world.

According to The Banker, Africa’s leading economies faced adverse conditions over the 2016 review period, as low commodity prices continue to shake the continent’s growth trajectory.

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They pointed out that dealing with a shortage of foreign exchange, heightened political risk and volatile currencies, the performances of some regional lenders have suffered.

South Africa’s Standard Bank Group once again topped the regional table with $8.6 billion in Tier 1 capital. This represented a 15 per cent increase from the 2016 ranking, accompanied by a notable jump in the global table from 160 to 149.

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Rounding out the top three positions were fellow South African lenders FirstRand and Nedbank, second and third, respectively, according to the report.

In total, four banks made the top 10 in 2017, pointing to the strengthening of the rand in the latter half of the review period as well as the diversified, sophisticated business models over which these banks preside.