CBN: 20 Banks Meet New Capital Requirements Ahead of Deadline

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that approximately 20 deposit money banks have already met the new capital requirements under the ongoing banking recapitalisation programme, shifting focus toward ensuring stronger balance sheets translate into real sector credit growth.

Okay News reports that Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Dr Muhammad Abdullahi, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking on a panel at the launch of the 2026 Macroeconomic Outlook of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group in Lagos.

Abdullahi recalled that at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting of 2025, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso revealed that 16 banks had achieved full compliance ahead of the deadline.

He explained that the recapitalisation programme was designed to build stronger banks capable of supporting Nigeria’s ambition of becoming a trillion-dollar economy.

“I think that even at the inception of the capitalisation programme, the major focus is how do we ensure that we have stronger banks that can support our drive towards a trillion-dollar economy? And the only way to get there is through the credit-review sector, to SMEs, to businesses that require funding at good rates. So as we close up towards March, the efforts have been quite impressive. We have about 20 banks that have already met it. A number of banks are meeting it every day,” Abdullahi said.

He stressed that recapitalisation alone is insufficient, warning that the focus must now shift from bigger balance sheets to productive and sustainable lending.

“The focus that we really are turning our attention to, especially from the financial system stability side, is that we ensure that a strengthened capital base translates into credit that is productive, that is well-targeted, and that is sustainable,” he said.

Abdullahi noted that the CBN has spent the past year strengthening its regulatory capacity through technology to monitor the transmission of recapitalisation benefits to priority sectors.

“The entire work we’ve been doing institutionally over the last year is to ensure that the Central Bank itself improves its regulation capacity through using technology to ensure that we can actually monitor that the effects of this capitalisation translate into real sector credit to SMEs,” he said.

He added that the apex bank would intervene where banks fail to channel increased capital into productive lending.

Beyond banking, Abdullahi highlighted Nigeria’s significant development finance challenge, estimating the country’s funding needs at about N230 trillion across critical sectors.

“Nigeria needs about N230tn in terms of development finance for various sectors. The capitalisation on average for all of the development finance institutions combined is not up to nine trillion naira, so there’s a huge gap,” he asserted.

He said the focus has shifted toward mobilising private sector capital, both domestic and international, to close the funding shortfall.

“How do we crowd in private sector capital globally and domestically? How do we ensure that when that capital comes in, it’s used efficiently?” Abdullahi asked.

He disclosed that the CBN has held extensive discussions with the Ministry of Finance, which has now taken the lead on development finance strategy, while the CBN supports the framework through financial system stability and regulation.

Abdullahi said efforts are underway to correct incentives within development finance institutions to ensure funds are deployed efficiently and not treated as expendable public resources.

“There’s a clear programme to see how we correct the incentives in each of the DFIs to ensure that when people give up money, it’s not seen as government money that should just be wasted,” he said.

He expressed optimism that progress would become evident in the coming months as fiscal and monetary authorities align to mobilise capital for growth and development.

Meanwhile, the Senior Economist for Nigeria at the World Bank Group, Dr Samer Matta, noted that the monetary authorities had done as much as they could with the instruments available to them.

The Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Enoh, also unveiled the National Industrial Policy, aimed at driving job creation, boosting manufacturing capacity, and reducing dependence on imports.

Enoh said the policy is built on execution-led design, clear sequencing, institutional ownership, performance benchmarks, timelines, and alignment across trade, investment, finance, energy, skills, infrastructure, and regulation.

It is structured around six pillars, including competitive industrial production, value-chain deepening and import substitution, MSME-to-industry transition, trade competitiveness and AfCFTA readiness, and institutional governance anchored on a strong Nigeria First policy.

Enoh said the value-chain pillar targets sectors such as agro-processing, solid minerals, petrochemicals, automotive, and pharmaceuticals, with defined local value-addition thresholds. He raised the question of whether manufacturing’s contribution to GDP could reach 20–25 per cent by 2030, describing the target as ambitious but achievable with commitment.

On MSMEs, he noted that while Nigeria has over 40 million small businesses, the challenge lies in ensuring they feed into industrial value chains through supply development, access to long-term finance, and industry-aligned skills.

He cited the controversy over last year’s temporary ban on shea nut exports as an example of the need to take industrial aspirations seriously, noting that Nigeria is a major producer but exports mostly raw materials.

Enoh said implementation would define the success of the policy, acknowledging public fatigue with policies that fail to deliver results. An implementation framework, he said, will be unveiled alongside the policy.

“The question is no longer what the policy is,” he said. “The question is how we deliver.”

According to him, stability has been achieved, and consolidation is underway, but what must follow are jobs and prosperity driven by deliberate policy, disciplined execution, and collective resolve.