The CBN is now apparently worried only 5 banks control 50% the entire banking sector in the country as reported in the papers. I had mentioned this in a blog post some months back when I analysed the entire results of Nigerian Banks. The CBN refused to mention the names of the banks but we know who they are. GT Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank, Access Bank and UBA all made about N358billion of the N545billion profits Nigerian banks made. Nevertheless, I am happy the CBN has now made this an official statement as revealed by Thisday;
Specifically, the central bank revealed that the average market share of assets and deposits of the five major banks stood at 52 per cent and 51.07 per cent, respectively at the end of 2012, compared to the 51.64 per cent and 53.14 per cent at the end of the first half of last year.
The CBN, which stated this in its “Financial Stability Report,” as at December 2012, posted on its website, however did not disclose the identity of the five commercial banks.
The report also showed the market share of the largest bank, with respect to assets and deposits, stood at 14.99 per cent and 13.47 per cent, respectively as at the end of December 2012, compared to 14.05 and 15.60 per cent as at the end of June 2012.
“This showed that competition remained limited in the banking system as confirmed by the Herfindahl- Hirschman Index (HHI) of 790.66 and 741.43 for total deposits and total assets, compared with 699.10 and 690.10, respectively, at end-June 2012.
