Entry Holdings Plc emerged because the clear chief amongst Nigeria’s tier-1 banks in digital enterprise earnings for the primary half of 2025, producing N101.65 billion from digital transactions.
Collectively, the 5 tier-1 lenders comprising Entry Holdings, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Zenith Bank, GTCO, and FBN Holdings earned N290.86 billion in e-business earnings through the interval, representing a 2.2% year-on-year decline from the N297.53 billion recorded in the identical interval of 2024.
Nonetheless, for Entry Holdings, the N101.65 billion digital channels income represents a 37.7% enhance in contrast with the N73.81 billion within the corresponding interval of 2024.
For the banks, e-business earnings represents income from digital channels, card merchandise, and associated providers. These channels embrace cell purposes, USSD channels, automated teller machines (ATMs), company banking, web banking, and level of gross sales (POS) funds.
UBA, Zenith, FBN, and GTCO see income drop
Regardless of their general improved efficiency for the interval underneath evaluation, UBA, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings, and GTCO, all robust gamers in digital banking, reported a notable decline in e-business income.
- UBA ‘s e-business earnings for the half-year was near Entry Holdings’ at N100.50 billion. Nonetheless, this represents a 5.3% decline for the bank, which recorded N106.15 billion within the earlier 12 months.
- Zenith Bank’s e-business earnings fell 11.7% year-on-year to N36.40 billion from N41.23 billion.
- GTCO’s e-business income additionally declined by 12%, from N32.50 billion in 2024 to N28.61 billion in 2025.
- FBN Holdings noticed the sharpest 45.9% decline to N23.69 billion from N43.83 billion, reflecting weaker transaction volumes and attainable migration to various channels.
What different banks earned
In the meantime, a take a look at the financials of different banks additionally revealed a mixture of development and decline in income. Sterling Monetary Holding Firm, as an illustration, grew its digital transactions earnings by 2.7% from N4.66 billion in half-year 2024 to N4.79 billion in 2025.
Stanbic IBTC additionally recorded a slight enhance in digital transaction income because it generated N2.25 billion in 2025 in contrast with the N2.15 billion recorded final 12 months.
Nonetheless, for Wema Bank, which recorded the most important e-business income among the many tier-2 banks, it was a decline. The lender’s e-business income for the half-year stood at N8.5 billion, a 59% decline from N20.9 billion recorded in the identical interval final 12 months.
Tier-1 banks’ IT spending
A take a look at the working bills of the tier-1 banks exhibits that additionally they elevated their spending in ramping up their IT infrastructure within the 12 months.
Whereas most of the banks had launched into core banking platform upgrades in direction of the top of final 12 months, the IT capability enhancements proceed into this 12 months, with most of the banks periodically asserting service disruptions for ‘upkeep’.
- Expectedly, Entry Holdings, which made the most important cash from digital channels, has been the most important spender on IT among the many banks to date this 12 months.
- In keeping with its monetary outcomes, the lender spent N69.4 billion on IT within the first half of the 12 months. This was, nonetheless, a decline in spending in contrast with the N111.2 billion the bank splurged on tech in the identical interval final 12 months.
- Zenith Bank greater than doubled its IT spending within the first half, with N49.88 billion dedicated to know-how in contrast with N23.09 billion outlay in the identical interval final 12 months.
- GTCO adopted with N37.76 billion, barely larger than its N36.60 billion spend in H1 2024, whereas UBA maintained near-flat spending at N6.72 billion versus N6.70 billion within the prior interval.
E-payment development
The expansion in e-business earnings for the banks is pushed by the rising recognition of cell and on-line banking in Nigeria.
As increasingly individuals use these channels to entry monetary providers, banks are seeing a corresponding enhance in income.
Regardless of the decline in e-business income for a number of the banks, analysts mentioned extra Nigerians are embracing digital funds, including that the decline might imply the banks’ clients are switching to various channels, resembling these offered by fintechs.
In keeping with the CEO of Chronis Expertise, Mr Kayode Joseph, the expansion in e-business income for the banks is a sign that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cashless coverage is having constructive results, not solely on the banks but in addition on Nigerians.
“The place you see a decline in e-business for a bank, it may solely imply that their clients are utilizing various service suppliers as a result of extra Nigerians are embracing digital cost, and there’s no going again on that,” he mentioned.
“In relation to e-banking or digital monetary providers, Nigerians at the moment are spoilt for alternative. That’s the reason you will notice some Nigerians hold their foremost money in a conventional bank and they are going to be utilizing a number of fintechs for normal transactions,” he added.
“Many Nigerians at the moment are discovering digital transactions extra handy, and I believe that is the influence of the CBN’s cashless coverage, which has restricted the amount of money that may be withdrawn in a day. It is a constructive signal for the Nigerian banking sector,” he mentioned.
He, nonetheless, famous that the banks might want to make investments extra of their infrastructure to deal with the problems of failed transactions and safe their techniques in opposition to fraud.
“Two components which can be nonetheless discouraging some Nigerians from utilizing banks’ digital channels are the difficulty of failed transactions or community issues and digital transaction fraud. If the bank can make investments extra in know-how to ship seamless transactions and safe their networks, they may see extra development of their e-business income,” he added.
What it’s best to know
The newest information launched by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) revealed that digital cost transactions in Nigeria rose to N284.9 trillion within the first quarter of 2025 as extra Nigerians go cashless.
The worth recorded on the NIBSS Prompt Fee (NIP) represents a 22% enhance over the N234.4 trillion transactions recorded in Q1 2024.
The NIP is an account-number-based, on-line real-time Inter-Bank cost resolution developed within the 12 months 2011 by NIBSS, and it facilitates transactions throughout a number of digital channels, together with web banking, cell apps, Unstructured Supplementary Service Knowledge (USSD), POS, ATM, amongst others.
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