Banking
Guaranty Trust Holding Company Beats Closing Gong at NGX
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The management of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc’s (GTCO Plc) was on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, honoured with a closing gong ceremony at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
The beat of the gong on the stock exchange signifies the closing of the day’s trading activities. This is done by respected persons and organisations in society.
GTCO was privileged to beat the gong yesterday to mark the listing of its shares on the main floor of the exchange after the completion of all regulatory requirements for its corporate reorganisation into a holding company structure and the listing of GTCO Plc on the NGX and the London Stock Exchange, replacing Guaranty Trust Bank Plc.
Guaranty Trust was first listed on the Nigerian Exchange in 1997, winning the “Nigerian Stock Exchange President’s Merit Award” within months of its listing.
In 2007, it became the first Nigerian bank to list on London Stock Exchange, the first to dual list on international exchange and the first Nigerian company to raise international capital using listed Global Depositary Receipts.
Since then, Guaranty Trust has embarked on a decade of unparalleled growth with total assets and shareholders’ funds closing at N4.993 trillion and N837.2 billion respectively, at the end of Q1, 2021.
As part of its long-term growth strategy, Guaranty Trust has now adopted a holding company structure wherein GTCO Plc will operate as the parent company of all Guaranty Trust banking businesses across Africa and the United Kingdom as well as other non-banking businesses which will be established following the transition.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of Guaranty Trust, Mr Segun Agbaje, said, “These are very exciting times for us. Following our transition, we can now compete more effectively with non-banks in this new and evolving competitive landscape, whilst creating more value for customers and shareholders than we ever could as a bank.”
“Although we are delighted to have completed this rigorous transition process, we know that the hard work has just begun. We are in the final phase of building a new payments business that will deepen and extend digital financial services across Africa.
“We also believe that we are in a better position to drive an Asset Management business and a Pension Fund business, given our strong retail base and digital-first approach to financial services, which we have honed over the past decade,” he added.
Founded in 1990, Guaranty Trust has maintained an unbroken streak of year-on-year growth and a consistent lead in driving the digitization of financial services in Africa.
It is the best managed financial institution in Nigeria, leading the industry across key financial indices, such as Return on Equity (ROAE of 26.0 per cent in Q1 2021), Return on Assets (ROAA of 4.3 per cent in Q1 2021), and Cost to Income ratio (42.6 per cent in Q1 2021).
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Sewa Capital Investment, an investment banking and financial advisory firm focused on supporting high-growth businesses across Africa, has made a strategic investment in Mathesis Analytics, a Nigerian financial technology company providing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered credit decisioning infrastructure.
The investment is expected to support Mathesis Analytics’ expansion drive for its AI-powered credit infrastructure in Nigeria.
Currently, Nigerian lenders face a critical structural gap: the fragmentation of verifiable consumer data makes it difficult to accurately price risk at scale. Mathesis directly addresses this bottleneck by aggregating disparate transactional and behavioural data into a real-time measure of creditworthiness.
The investment will support product development, institutional integrations, expansion of Mathesis’ lender network, and the strengthening of its data and technology infrastructure, a statement from the fintech firm stated.
By embedding this infrastructure, financial institutions can expand underwriting capacity, support more accurate risk-based lending decisions, and reach new market segments without compromising established risk thresholds.
For Mathesis Analytics, this investment represents an important milestone in its strategy to build Africa’s next-generation credit infrastructure to drive true financial inclusion.
Mathesis has already supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, providing a substantial operating base from which to deepen institutional adoption and expand into additional markets.
The company will leverage Sewa Capital’s backing to accelerate the expansion of its institutional footprint.
“At Sewa Capital, we are interested in businesses building the infrastructure that enables African economies to allocate capital more efficiently and inclusively.
“Mathesis Analytics is addressing a fundamental constraint in credit markets: the information gap that limits lenders’ ability to assess risk confidently.
“Its technology has the potential to expand responsible access to credit in Nigeria and, over time, across Africa. We are pleased to support the team through its next phase of growth,” the Managing Director of Sewa Capital, Ms Angela Jide-Jones, commented.
The chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Mr Winston Osuchukwu, in his reaction, said, “Credit inclusion begins with information visibility.
“Partnering with Sewa Capital accelerates the rollout of our infrastructure; equipping a wider network of lenders with the capabilities required to accurately evaluate risk and ultimately deliver credit services to previously excluded populations across the continent.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Eligible innovators, financial institutions, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), financial technology (fintech) companies, and technology firms have been invited to apply for the second cohort of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Regulatory Sandbox Programme.
A statement signed by the acting Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations Department of the apex bank, Mrs Hakama Sidi-Ali, disclosed that entries opened on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, and will close on Monday, August 31, 2026.
Cohort 2 of the initiative introduces two dedicated testing tracks to support emerging technologies with the potential to strengthen Nigeria’s financial system while upholding high standards of consumer protection, financial stability, and market integrity.
According to the central bank, the two tracks are VASP and Data-Enabled Financial Services (Non-VASP).
VASP track is to support innovative virtual asset, stablecoin, payment, settlement, custody, wallet, and related financial infrastructure solutions that require supervised live testing, while the non-VASP track supports innovations that leverage secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to improve financial inclusion, payments, credit, risk management, operational efficiency, and consumer outcomes.
The CBN Regulatory Sandbox provides a controlled environment in which eligible participants may test innovative financial products, services, business models, and enabling technologies under the supervision of the CBN.
The programme enables the CBN and innovators to engage constructively throughout the testing process, supporting regulatory learning while encouraging responsible innovation that benefits consumers and the wider financial system.
Eligible organisations whose proposed innovations fall within the programme’s scope are encouraged to apply.
Applications will be assessed based on the level of innovation, readiness for controlled live testing, potential consumer or market benefit, governance arrangements, risk management capability, and the suitability of the proposed testing plan.
Successful participants will undertake supervised testing within clearly defined parameters agreed with the CBN, including appropriate safeguards for consumer protection, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and regulatory reporting.
The central bank emphasised that participation in the scheme does not constitute a licence, authorisation, or approval to operate outside the approved testing parameters.
It noted that the Sandbox is intended to facilitate responsible experimentation, strengthen regulatory engagement, and support evidence-based policy development in line with the CBN’s statutory mandate.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The international spending limit on the GTBank Naira card has been increased by the financial institution to $40,000.
This information was revealed by the lender in an email to customers on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.
The banking subsidiary of GTCO Plc disclosed that the new offshore spending limit is for a quarter.
This development comes as the Nigerian foreign exchange (FX) market is witnessing stability against the United States Dollar.
The forex volatility experienced a few years ago has eased, allowing companies and others to plan within a reasonable exchange rate band.
“The Dollar limit on your GTBank Naira Card is now $40,000 quarterly,” the tier-1 commercial bank said in the message sighted by Business Post.
Improvement in forex liquidity in the domestic FX ecosystem has allowed Nigerians to use their local cards to complete financial transactions on foreign platforms, which was not possible a few years ago because of Dollar scarcity and arbitrage.
At the official market on Tuesday, the exchange rate closed at N1,364/$1. It was exchanged at N1,367/$1 at the GTBank FX desk and N1,395/$1 at the parallel market.
