First Bank of Nigeria (FirstBank) has met the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) ₦500 billion minimum capital requirement for banks operating with international licences, marking a major milestone in the ongoing recapitalisation of the Nigerian banking sector.
The development was announced on January 1, 2026, by the Chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, Mr Femi Otedola, nearly three months ahead of the CBN’s March 31, 2026 deadline.
FirstBank achieved the target through a combination of capital-raising strategies, including rights issues offered to existing shareholders and private placements targeted at high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. By the final quarter of 2025, the bank had secured several funding tranches, enabling it to cross the ₦500 billion threshold.
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The successful recapitalisation reinforces FirstBank’s status as a systemically important financial institution in Nigeria and strengthens its balance sheet at a time of heightened regulatory scrutiny. With an expanded capital base, the lender is better positioned to finance large-scale infrastructure projects and deepen lending to the real sector, including agriculture, manufacturing, and technology.
Analysts note that completing the capital raise in a high-interest-rate environment reflects strong investor confidence in the bank and in Nigeria’s broader economic reform agenda under the Federal Government’s “Renewed Hope” programme.
Following the announcement, Otedola called on the CBN to consider raising the minimum capital requirement for international banks to ₦1 trillion. He argued that Nigeria’s ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2030 would require leading banks to build even stronger capital buffers, enhance global competitiveness, and uphold robust corporate governance standards.
