By Folakemi Emem-Akpan
Introduction
Our analysis of Zenith Bank’s books reveals that the bank had a steady year. There were no dramatic improvements in terms of growth and profitability. However, the bank managed to remain steady.
Gross earnings improved, but not by too much, and pre-tax profit declined slightly. However, while profitability ratios were generally a little lower than those of 2024, they still remained high enough for the bank to be considered highly efficient.
One thing that can be said for Zenith Bank is that it knows how to treat its shareholders right. In 2025, they received a higher dividend per share than they did in 2024. And the 2026 financial year seems to be shaping up the same way 2025 did, if the first quarter results are anything to go by.
Core operations
For the 2025 financial year, Zenith Bank’s loan portfolio increased to N10.45 billion from N9.97 billion in the preceding year, while its deposit base also increased to N24.3 billion from N21.96 billion in 2024.
Average lending rate, which measures the average rate of interest earned on loans granted to customers, increased over the preceding year’s (35.2 per cent in 2025 compared with 27.3 per cent in 2024), while average deposit interest rate decreased (4.2 per cent in 2025 compared with 4.5 per cent in 2024). This means that the bank charged its borrowers more by way of interest but paid its depositors a lower rate of interest than it did in the previous year.
This caused net interest margin, the measure of how efficiently a bank earns interest after paying interest to depositors and lenders, to improve to 71.8 per cent in 2025 from 63.5 per cent in 2024.
The bank’s gross earnings (an addition of its interest income and other fees and commissions) increased to N4.19 trillion during the course of the year, 5.6 per cent better than the prior year’s. However, pre-tax profit for the year declined by 4.8 per cent to N1.26 trillion, while profit after tax grew by 0.7 per cent to N1.04 trillion.
Earnings per share was lower than that of the prior year, closing at N25.32 as compared to N32.87 before. However, dividend per share improved, with a final dividend of N10.00 compared to N5.00 in 2024.
Profitability ratios
Profitability ratios for 2025 generally witnessed a slowdown when compared with what was realised in 2024. That said, the profitability ratios recorded by the bank were high enough by industry levels to be adjudged commendable, only that they were lower than those of the prior year.
For instance, the bank’s profit margin for the year was 30.1 per cent (33.4 per cent in 2024), meaning that for every N100 earned by the bank in the course of the year, N30.10 made it to the profit position, as compared to N33.40 for the preceding year.
Returns on assets and equity also both declined slightly in 2025, with return on assets (ROA) falling to 4.0 per cent from 4.4 per cent, and return on equity to 21.1 per cent from 25.6 per cent.
The only profitability ratio that we examined that showed an improvement over the preceding year’s was earnings per employee. The workforce increased to 8,773 employees in 2025 from 7,704 in 2024. Earnings per employee improved to an average of N447.8 million, up from N409.2 million in 2024.
Other ratios
The proportion of the bank’s loans classified as non-performing during the year was 3.8 per cent, lower and better than the 4.7 per cent recorded in 2024. Lower percentages for this ratio indicate better credit quality.
In terms of capital adequacy, Zenith Bank managed to maintain almost the status quo. Its risk-weighted capital adequacy ratio for the year was 25.3 per cent, compared to 25.6 per cent in 2024 and 21.7 per cent in 2023.
Zenith Bank’s current ratio was 1.03 times, matching its peers in the industry for 2025. It is important to note that a ratio above 1 generally indicates adequate liquidity.
The bank had a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.4 times, meaning that it was using N5.40 of liabilities in addition to each N1.00 of shareholders’ equity. This compares with 6.4 times in 2024 and 7.8 times in 2023. This ratio measures financial leverage and indicates how much debt finances the company relative to shareholders’ investment. Since lower ratios suggest lower financial risk, the bank can be said to have improved in this regard in 2025.
Sustainable growth
The bank paid a total dividend of N10.00 per share for its 2025 financial year, and the proportion of dividend payout to profit after tax was higher than that of the prior year. Retention ratio in 2025 was therefore 0.61 times, lower than 0.85 times in the preceding year.
Asset turnover (measuring how efficiently a company uses its assets to generate sales) for the year was 0.13 times, the same as the year before, while assets/equity (measuring financial leverage by indicating how much of the company’s assets are financed by shareholders’ equity versus liabilities) was 6.39 times.
Our analysis shows that sustainable growth for 2025 was 15.5 per cent, significantly lower than the 27.9 per cent recorded in 2024. Because sustainable growth rate measures the maximum rate at which a company can grow using internally generated profits without raising additional external equity or significantly increasing leverage, the lower rate recorded by Zenith Bank in 2025 (especially when compared with 2024 and 2023) is not a very good sign.
Compared, however, with its actual growth rate for the same period, which was 5.6 per cent, the sustainable growth rate is acceptable since the bank did not actually reach its sustainable growth ceiling.
Unaudited results
The Zenith Group’s first quarter result for 2026 shows both top-line and bottom-line growth, with revenue growing by 6.1 per cent to N1.01 trillion when compared with the same period in the prior year. Bottom-line growth was a little slower, though. Profit after tax for the period was N314 billion, only 0.7 per cent higher than the corresponding figure in 2025. Earnings per share, at 764 kobo, were also only 0.7 per cent higher than the 759 kobo achieved in the same period last year. The bank’s net interest margin for the period was 72.9 per cent, better than the 70.6 per cent recorded in the prior year.
Unique strategies
Zenith Bank stands out through its disciplined risk management, strong corporate and commercial banking franchise, continuous digital innovation, and consistently high profitability. The bank has also expanded its international footprint while maintaining one of the strongest capital positions in Nigeria. Its recent achievements include being named Best Bank in Nigeria at the Global Finance Best Banks Awards 2025 for the fifth time in six years, and winning both Africa’s Best Bank and Nigeria’s Best Bank at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2026, reinforcing its leadership, resilience, innovation, and commitment to delivering superior value to customers and shareholders.
Conclusion
Although Zenith Bank did not record spectacular growth in 2025, it once again demonstrated the qualities that have made it one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions. The bank maintained strong profitability, preserved excellent asset quality, improved its net interest margin, and rewarded shareholders with a higher dividend despite a slight decline in pre-tax profit. Most of its key performance indicators remained healthy, even where they declined from the levels recorded in 2024. The first quarter 2026 results also point to continued stability rather than rapid expansion. Overall, Zenith Bank remains a well-managed, resilient institution with strong fundamentals and a disciplined approach to sustainable long-term growth.