Zenith Bank Plc is now officially Nigeria’s largest bank by Customer Deposit. In its 2017 annual report and first quarter 2018 interim report released by the company, it reported that its total customer deposits are now a whopping N3.396 trillion as at end of March 2018. It was N3.43 trillion as at year-end December 2017.

Zenith Bank has thus overtaken First Bank as Nigeria’s largest bank by Customer Deposits, a position held by the latter for decades. In its 2017 December, year-end annual report recently released, FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank Limited, reported a total customer deposit of N3.14 trillion only. In its first quarter ending March 31st interim report, First Bank revealed that its total customer deposits were N3.24 trillion.

In terms of total banking deposits (Customer deposits plus bank deposits) First Bank still tops the chart with a blistering N3.94 trillion. Zenith Bank did not report deposits held on behalf of other banks.

Up close with the FUGAZ.

• FUGAZ (which is an acronym for FBNH, UBA, GT Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank) is Nigeria’s Tier 1 Banks. According to the data, the banks now have a cumulative total customer deposit of N14.1 trillion.
• GT Bank has the least customer deposits but has traditionally never been aggressive when it comes to mobilizing deposits.
• In terms of Current deposits, Zenith Bank ranks first with an astonishing N1.8 trillion. GT Bank comes second with about N1.3 trillion, followed by UBA with N1.1 trillion. Current deposits cost banks zero in terms of interest rates and are most sought after.
• Savings deposits are one of the cheapest ways of mobilizing funding and here, First Bank rules with a humongous N1 trillion out of the total of N2.7 trillion kept by the banks. UBA is next with N601 billion followed by GTBank with N506 billion.
• Term (or fixed) deposits are perhaps the most expensive forms of deposits. Access Bank has the highest term deposits with over N1.29 trillion and is followed by First Bank with N1 trillion. UBA comes third with N795 trillion.
• Access Bank and GTBank does not separately disclose its domiciliary account deposits so it is likely that it is included in either term, savings or current deposits.
• First Bank was the only bank that separately disclosed deposits in its electronic purse accounts.

How they stack 

Table of Champions

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Chart – By Banks

Chart – By Deposit type

Why it matters

• Banking is all about taking customers’ deposits and then lending them in exchange for interest income.
• Nigerian banks spend billions annually chasing customer deposits through various means such as hiring marketers, building branches across the country, investing in mobile banking applications, adverts, and any other means legally possible.
• Banks with the largest customer deposits have humongous economies of scale that they can rely on to fund mega money making projects that create jobs, huge returns for the lenders and returns for the bank.
• The Central Bank of Nigeria takes financial inclusion very seriously; thus, the growth of customers’ deposits in Nigerian banks demonstrates that some of its policies are working.
• By being the number 1 bank in terms of deposits, Zenith Bank is now Nigeria’s largest bank by balance sheet size and customers’ deposits, two of the most important metrics used for judging how big a bank is.