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.
United Bank for Africa Plc took the 3rd position with a pretax profit of N388.4 billion, slightly lower than N401.5 billion last year.
- Interest income climbed 32.9% to N1.3 trillion, with treasury bills contributing N366.4 billion, corporate term loans N319 billion, and bonds N279.2 billion. Other income sources made up the rest.
Net interest income grew 14.6% to N773 billion, and after impairments, stood at N741 billion.
Net fee and commission income reached N147 billion, though higher operating costs, particularly personnel and administrative expenses, trimmed overall profitability.
Nonetheless, UBA maintained a solid footing with total assets of N33.2 trillion, up 9.7%, and retained earnings of N1.6 trillion, up 12.9%.
