Nine of the nation’s deposit money banks (DMBs) grew their customer deposits by 18.24 per cent, or N18.63 trillion, in the first nine months of this year from N102.14 trillion at the end of last year, the lenders’ unaudited financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2025, show.
The nine banks are: Access Holdings, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank, FirstHoldCo, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Sterling Financial Holdings Company, Wema Bank and Jaiz Bank.
New Telegraph’s analysis of the lenders’ results indicates that Access Holdings led the pack as its customer deposits rose by 47 per cent to N33.10 trillion as at 30 September 2025, from N22.52 trillion as of the end of last year. UBA’s customer deposits were the second highest as they went up by 8.70 per cent to N23.80 trillion as at the end of September, from N21.89 trillion, at the end of December last year.
Similarly, Zenith Bank’s customer deposits increased by 7.87 per cent to N23.69 trillion as at the end of September from N21.96 trillion at the end of last year. FirstHoldCo’s customer deposits rose by 4.2 per cent to N17.9 trillion as at the end of September from N17.2 trillion at the end of 2024. For GTCO, the Tier 1 lender grew its customer deposits by 18.36 per cent to N11.85 trillion at the end of September from N10.01 trillion at the end of December last year.
Stanbic IBTC Holdings’ customer deposits also headed north, rising by 38.84 per cent to N4.18 trillion at the end September, from N3.01 trillion at the end of last year. Sterling Financial Holdings Company grew its customer deposits by 14.34 per cent to N2.88 trillion as at the end of September compared with N2.52 trillion at the end of December.
In the same vein, the customer deposits of Wema Bank rose by 7.99 per cent to N2. 73 trillion as at the end of Q3’2025 compared with N2.52 trillion at the end of 2024. Non-Interest lender, Jaiz Bank, grew its customer current deposits by 30.38 per cent to N643.53 billion as at the end of September from N493.60 billion at the end of last year. Analysts note that despite the harsh economy and competition from fintech companies, DMBs were able to effectively leverage digital technologies, like fintechs, to grow their customer deposits in the first nine months of this year.
Commenting on the Tier 1 lender’s 9M’ 2025 results, for instance, Group Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Adaora Umeoji, said: “Zenith delivered a solid nine-month performance despite a demanding backdrop. We stayed disciplined on risk, deepened customer relationships across retail and corporate segments, and deployed our balance sheet where we saw quality opportunities.”
However, financial experts believe that with the 45 per cent Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) imposed on banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as part of its tight monetary policy measures, lenders are compelled to adopt aggressive deposit mobilization strategies. The CRR refers to the share of deposits that banks are required to keep with the CBN.
This means that with the CRR set at 45 per cent, for every N1,000 deposited in a bank, N450 must be retained with the apex bank, leaving only N550 available for lending. Experts point out that at 45 per cent, Nigeria’s CRR is among the highest in the world and directly reduces the amount of funds available for the country’s banks to use for lending or other income-generating activities.
