Nigeria’s top ten banks on the NGX reported a combined pretax profit of N2.7 trillion for the six months ended June 2025.
Although this represents a 12% decline from the N3.16 trillion recorded in the same period last year, it still highlights the sector’s solid performance.
Profitability remains one of the most important measures of financial health and operational efficiency, an indicator that investors and analysts closely track to assess how well institutions are performing.
Pretax profit, in simple terms, shows how much a company earns after accounting for operating expenses, impairments, and other costs, but before taxes are deducted.
This article examines the performance of Nigeria’s top banks in their H1 2025 financial results, most of which have been published, except for Fidelity Bank, which has yet to release its numbers.
The focus here is on the pretax profit amount generated during the six-month period, rather than on year-on-year changes in performance.
With that context, here are the 10 most profitable Nigerian banks in the first half of 2025.
Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc ranked 9th with a pretax profit of N45.5 billion, soaring 162.6% from N17.3 billion in the same period last year.
Interest income rose sharply to N167.1 billion, driven mainly by loans and advances at N115.4 billion, and debt instruments at N27.8 billion.
- Despite an interest expense of N69.7 billion, net interest income grew 69.2% to N97.4 billion.
The bank also earned N22 billion in fees and N13 billion in trading income, bringing total operating income to N142.8 billion. After an impairment of N5.2 billion, net operating income reached N137.6 billion, up 63%.
Even with N92.1 billion in total expenses, Sterling delivered a strong N45.5 billion pretax profit in H1 2025.
Total assets expanded 15.3% to N4.08 trillion, while retained earnings climbed to N95.5 billion from N63 billion.
