The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which is the apex bank in Nigeria has announced a new minimum capital requirement to operate a commercial bank, merchant bank and Non – interest banks in Nigeria.
The announcement from CBN which came on Thursday 28th March 2024 has generated many opinions from people that understands how banking works. Some saw it as a welcome development while others posited a tight period for bank owners.
The raise of the capital requirement to own and operate commercial bank, merchant and non-interest bank may lead to mergers and acquisition of banks that couldn’t afford to meet up with the new minimum capital requirement.
According to the memo from the CBN financial Policy & Regulation Department, “the prevailing macroeconomic challenges headwinds occasioned by external and domestic shocks have underscored the need for banks to raise and maintain adequate capital to enhance their resilience, solvency and capacity to continue to support the growth of the Nigerian economy”.
From the information, commercial banks with international authorization will require minimum capital of N500 Billion while national will be N200 Billion and regional authorization for the minimum capital requirement will be N50 Billion.
Merchant banks will require N50 Billion under national authorization in the minimum capital requirements according to the new policy.
Non-Interest banks that have National authorization will require N20 Billion while regional authorization category will require N10 Billion as minimum capital.
