29th March, 2024
By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced new minimum capital requirements for all banks operating in the country, the spokesperson for the apex bank, Hakama Sidi-Ali said in a statement in Abuja on Thursday evening.
Sidi-Ali, in the statement said the new minimum capital requirements apply not only to existing banks, but also to all new applications for banking licenses submitted after April 1, 2024.
Specifically, the statement indicated that for banks with international authorisation, the new capital base is N500 billion, while the minimum capital base for commercial banks with national authorisation has been raised to N200bn from the previous N25bn.
The CBN statement also indicated that that the capital base of banks with regional authorisation is now N50bn, up from N10 billion, while the minimum capital requirement for merchant banks has also been jacked up to N50 billion.
Also, CBN said the new minimum capital for non-interest banks with national and regional authorisations is now N20 billion and N10 billion respectively.
According to the apex bank, the new minimum capital base requirments that will come into effect on April 1, 2024.
But is added that the banks have been given opportunity of two years to jack up their capital base with March 31, 2026 as deadline.
However, CBN also advised banks on how they can achieve to achieve the new capital base requirements.
The apex namk listed the measures to include raising additional additional capital through private placements, rights issues or public offerings, consolidation through mergers and acquisitions and downgrade or upgrade of their licenses for their desired authorization level.
In addition, CBN directed banks to maintain the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) mandated for their specific license authorization so as not to comply with the CAR could result in mandatory capital injections to regularize the bank’s position.
The CBN said while it will continue to process pending applications where capital deposits have already been made or an Approval-in-Principle (AIP) has been granted, promoters of these proposed banks “will need to bridge the gap between their deposited capital and the new requirement by March 31, 2026”.
CBN also mandated all banks to submit on how they will meet he new requirements and the timeline for each step by April 30, 2024 with promise that it will monitor banks to ensure compliance with the new regulations within the specified timeframe.