FirstHoldco Plc has released its 2025 Unaudited Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2025, reporting a pre-tax profit of N229.097 billion.
This reflects a 71.18% decline in pre-tax profits when compared to the N796.461 billion reported in 2024.
Profit after tax also declined by 93.36% to N44.98 billion compared to N677.005 billion reported in 2024.
The profit decline can primarily be attributed to impairment charges for losses, particularly loans and advances to customers, amounting to N710 billion.
Key highlights (FY 2025 vs FY 2024)
- Interest income: N2.96 trillion, up 23.65% YoY
- Interest expense: N1.05 trillion, up 5.78% YoY
- Net interest income: N1.91 trillion, down 36.47% YoY
- Net impairment losses: N748.1 billion, up 75.48% YoY
- Earnings per share (EPS): N0.91, down 93.36% YoY
- Total assets: N27.06 trillion, up 2.04% YoY
- Loans and advances to customers: N9.06 trillion, up 3.37% YoY
- Customer deposits: N18.90 trillion, up 10.02% YoY
- Equity: N3.21 trillion, up 15% YoY
What the data are saying
FirstHoldco’s financial result for 2025 was majorly impacted by the increase in impairment charges, particularly on loans and advances to customers, which reached N710 billion, accounting for the largest portion of the N748.1 billion total impairment charge.
- This 75.48% increase in impairment charges reflects a significant rise in provisions for potential loan defaults, contributing to the 36.47% decline in net interest income.
- Notably, FirstHoldco booked impairment losses on loans and advances to customers of N442.6 billion in Q4 2025 alone.
- However, despite the sharp rise in impairment provisions, net interest income, the bank’s key performance indicator, improved to N1.91 trillion from N1.4 trillion in 2024.
- This improvement in net interest income demonstrates that the bank’s core operations performed better, even in the face of higher provisions for loan defaults.
- From a balance sheet perspective, total assets increased by 2.04% to N27.06 trillion, supported by growth in loans and advances to customers (up 3.37% to N9.06 trillion) and investment securities (up 10.11% to N7.20 trillion).
This indicates that the lending portfolio has continued to grow its asset base.
On the liability side, customer deposits increased by 10.02% to N18.90 trillion, a key driver of the growth in assets.
What to know
First HoldCo Plc announced earlier in the year that its subsidiary, First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank), had successfully met the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) minimum regulatory capital requirement of N500 billion.
- According to the holding company, the capital raise was completed through a mix of market and balance sheet measures.
- In November, the CBN revealed that 16 banks have met its recapitalisation threshold ahead of the March 2026 deadline.
- The HoldCo’s total assets stand at about N27 trillion at the end of 2025, while net asset is N3.1 trillion, up from N2.7 trillion a year earlier.
