Nigeria’s largest banks set aside a combined N1.96 trillion in the first nine months of 2025 as impairment charges to cover potential loan losses.
This represents a sharp increase from about N1.32 trillion (up 49%) in the same period of 2024.
Crucially, this surge in provisioning comes as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) begins unwinding its pandemic-era forbearance measures, regulatory relief that previously allowed banks to restructure exposures and delay the classification of non-performing loans.
The apex bank has since flagged banks still under forbearance for “close supervisory engagement.”
Under the revised framework, banks that continue to benefit from forbearance are restricted from paying dividends, issuing executive bonuses, or expanding offshore operations, while those that have met the minimum requirements are transitioning out.
Ahead of the full unwind in March 2026, the CBN disclosed that at least eight banks have already met the requisite forbearance-related standards, signaling an improving regulatory stance.
Against this backdrop, Nairametrics reviewed the financial statements of Nigeria’s top listed banks to determine those with the largest impairment charges so far in 2025.
Below is the ranking of the eight banks with the biggest loan-loss provisions as of Q3 2025.
GTCO’s impairment expense rose modestly to N69.8 billion (vs N63.6 billion) for the nine-month period ended September 2025, reflecting more conservative ECL modelling and exposure diversification.
GTCO had mentioned that impairment charges increased to N55.0bn, due to “write off of a key oil & gas exposure, consistent with the Group’s conservative risk management framework”.
The bank also made a recovery of N4.1 billion during the year under review, helping reduce the loans provisioned in the period under review.
Despite this increase, GTCO’s net interest income rose by 21.8% YoY to N952.1 billion, showing that higher yields on assets comfortably absorbed the impairment burden.
GTCO post one of the best metrics in the Nigerian Financial Services Industry in terms of key financial ratios i.e., Pre-Tax Return on Equity (ROAE) of 39.5%, Pre-Tax Return on Assets (ROAA) of 7.6%, Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 36.5% and Cost to Income ratio of 28.8%.
