Banking
Industry Observers Say Polaris Bank is Dead on Arrival
By Dipo Olowookere
The withdrawal of the operating license of Skye Bank Plc by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) late September 2018 has continued to generate reactions from experts, analysts and observers.
When the apex bank collapsed Skye Bank, it announced a bridge bank called Polaris Bank, retaining the management it appointed for the defunct lender in 2016 because it was impressed with their performance.
But some people who have chewed on the statement of the Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor, on the establishment of the bridge bank, have described Polaris Bank “dead on arrival”.
According to Mr Emefiele, the license of Skye Bank Plc was withdrawn after noticing that despite its intervention for two years, the financial institution was still visiting the Standing Lending Facility (SLF), a window which allow banks to borrow from the CBN, as a result of liquidity challenges.
To avoid the monies of depositor going down the drain and because the bank was one of the Systemically Important Bank (SIB), the CBN decided to shut down the financial institution and name a new one using its structures, staffs and resources of Skye Bank Plc.
Mr Emefiele was quoted on Friday, September 21, saying that ‘the existing Board, Management and Staff of the defunct Skye Bank has been retained for its good performance’. According to him, Skye Bank Plc’s performance has improved considerably compared to the pre-July 2016 era.
However, there have been questions as to why the apex bank would revoke license of a bank with a performing management. It was understandable when the Mr Tunde Ayeni-led board was sacked by the central bank because the bank found itself in a non-performing loan mess estimated to be almost N700 billion.
The criss-cross in the statement of the CBN has thus seen questions being asked with no one ready to answer them.
There are some who said if the interim management set up by the CBN to manage Skye Bank for two years could not prevent its eventual fall, why keep the team to run the bridge bank.
Also, there are those who insist that there is more to the whole development, as they keep asking if the bank would have been put to rest if it was really doing well. There are also those who believe that the hands of the CBN Governor Emefiele might be tied, hence he is maintaining the set of management and board. Whatever is the situation, one basic truth is that Polaris Bank in the hands of the same management that couldn’t salvage Skye Bank Plc is only poised to fail except of course if the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) can quickly find a buyer before the invested N786 billion is known.
Explaining the consequences of the move by the apex bank, Financial Analyst, Tunde Biobaku, said “when a bank is recapitalized, there is always the need to name a new board who will handle the new investment. If you use the same set of people, they will run down the business just like they initially did to make the bank need recapitalization in the first place, so what the CBN has done is very confusing because the same guys that couldn’t do well with Skye Bank are now managing Polaris Bank, the end result is already clear, crystal clear. They would leave Polaris Bank worse than they met it, you mark my words.”
Boniface Okezie, National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), said the CBN need to explain its actions to Nigerians for better understanding.
Okezie said the investors should not be allowed to suffer again for the misdeeds and mistakes of the regulations. He called on the Federal Government to investigate the incessant fall of banks in the country, adding that the past management and board of Skye Bank must be made to account of what led to the the bank’s misfortune.
Signs that the apex bank would move in to takeover the bank became obvious when it failed to declare its result under the mandatory window. The announcement of the takeover by CBN came like a surprise to many.
With the same old wine in a new bottle, it is hard to see a flourishing Polaris Bank in the near future, especially in the hands of Tokunbo Abiru, leader of the team.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Africa’s most valuable fintech, Flutterwave, has signalled that its long-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) remains firmly on the back burner as the company intensifies efforts to transform itself into a licensed financial institution across the continent.
The firm’s chief executive, Mr Olugbenga Agboola, said the firm is focused on building sustainable profitability, diversifying its revenue streams and expanding its banking footprint before considering a stock market listing.
Speaking to The Africa Report, Mr Agboola described an IPO as a future financing milestone rather than an immediate strategic objective.
“An IPO is a financing event, not a strategy,” he said. “We are not holding any pressure to go public. This gives us the flexibility to be patient and ensure when we do list, we’re doing so from a position of strength.”
The comments come as Flutterwave embarks on an acquisition-led expansion strategy aimed at securing banking licences and deeper regulatory access across Africa.
Mr Agboola revealed that the company is currently in the process of acquiring a bank in East Africa, though he declined to disclose the institution or country involved.
The planned acquisition is expected to provide Flutterwave with an established customer base, existing banking infrastructure and regulatory approvals, significantly shortening the time required to enter new financial services markets.
According to Mr Agboola, the company’s expansion priorities include Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa and Egypt, while the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia remain under consideration for future growth.
Rather than building banks from scratch in every market, Flutterwave intends to adopt a mix of acquisitions, licences and strategic partnerships depending on local regulatory conditions.
“The vision is not to form a bank in every country but to ensure that every African business has access to more than financial services,” Mr Agboola said in the interview.
The banking push follows recent regulatory and corporate developments, including the Central Bank of Nigeria’s approval of Flutterwave’s banking licence and the acquisition of open banking startup Mono.
Together, the moves underscore a broader strategy to expand beyond payments and establish new revenue streams in lending, liquidity management and business banking services.
Flutterwave plans to focus on institutional deposits from businesses already using its platform rather than competing aggressively for retail deposits.
The company intends to leverage transaction data from its payments network to provide short-term working capital, merchant financing, invoice discounting and trade finance products for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mr Agboola disclosed that the bulk of the capital earmarked for banking operations will be directed toward credit support and liquidity buffers, with additional allocations for lending and banking infrastructure.
The strategy reflects a growing trend among African fintech firms seeking banking licences to reduce dependence on traditional financial institutions and gain greater control over settlement, liquidity management and product development.
Despite speculation about a near-term public listing, Mr Agboola maintained that Flutterwave’s immediate focus remains execution and growth.
He noted that the company will only consider an IPO after achieving stronger profitability and establishing scale across its payments, banking and remittance businesses.
In February 2025, he told Bloomberg that Flutterwave would only pursue a public offering after becoming profitable. He also stated in late 2024 that the company was “not in the IPO race.”
Founded in 2016, Flutterwave has processed more than one billion transactions valued at over $40 billion across 35 African countries. The company recently secured fresh funding that lifted its valuation to $3.3 billion, with American blockchain firm Ripple leading the investment round.
For now, however, Flutterwave appears more interested in building the foundations of a pan-African financial institution than rushing to the public markets, positioning banking expansion as the next phase of its growth story while keeping an eventual IPO firmly on the long-term horizon.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian businessman Femi Otedola has strengthened his position as the largest shareholder in First Holdco Plc, increasing his stake to 26 per cent through the acquisition of additional shares worth N222.21 billion on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
According to a disclosure on the NGX on Thursday, the chairman of First Holdco acquired further 1,779,094,976 shares of the group at N124.90 per share.
The transaction on the Nigerian main bourse takes Mr Otedola’s position to 11,763,018,192 shares from 9,277,792,037 as of June 30 2026, as per the company’s unaudited results, making him the largest shareholder of the oldest financial institution in Nigeria.
The acquisition also has implications under Nigeria’s takeover rules, which require any shareholder that acquires 30 per cent or more of a listed company to make a mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders.
With an estimated 26 per cent stake in First Holdco, which is equivalent to nearly 12 billion shares out of the company’s 45.48 billion outstanding shares, Mr Otedola is now nearing the regulatory threshold.
The gap to the mandatory takeover threshold is about 2.49 billion shares, fewer than the block Otedola acquired in July 2026 alone. A further purchase of a similar scale would trigger Nigeria’s mandatory takeover rules, requiring him to make an offer for all the remaining shares of First Holdco Plc, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited.
As of now, the billionaire has given no indication that he intends to trigger a mandatory takeover, consistently describing his share purchases as a long-term investment rather than a path to outright control of the group.
Mr Otedola’s stake-building has been years in the making but gathered significant pace in 2026. He held 6.68 billion shares, representing 15.95 per cent of First Holdco, at the end of June 2025, when the company had 41.88 billion shares outstanding.
By March 31, 2026, his holding had risen to 8.06 billion shares against an expanded share capital of 44.45 billion. Three months later, his stake increased to 9.28 billion shares after he acquired about 1.22 billion shares in a single quarter, largely through indirect holdings. A further acquisition through his investment vehicle, Calvados Global Services, this month pushed his holdings above the 10 billion-share mark for the first time.
He has also reiterated that the money committed is his own rather than borrowed.
In recent months, Mr Otedola has also made other high-profile investment moves beyond the banking sector, including acquiring a luxury residence in London’s exclusive Mayfair district, underscoring his growing international real estate portfolio.
He is believed to have participated in a financing arrangement involving the Dangote Refinery, placing funds with the facility as it secured working capital to support the scale-up of operations.
With the 30 per cent threshold now within reach, is a First Holdco takeover Mr Otedola’s next move?
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
In the first six months of this year, Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, the parent company of Sterling Bank Limited, grew its gross earnings by 31.5 per cent to N279.6 billion.
This was buoyed by a 33.7 per cent jump in interest income to N223.6 billion as the loan book expanded and asset yields improved, with non-interest income rising by 23.3 per cent to N56.0 billion, supported by notable increases in fee income and other operating income lines. As of June 30, 2026, the organisation’s net interest income climbed by 41.0 per cent to N137.4 billion.
The unaudited results for the half-year ended June 30 showed that the firm recorded a 21.9 per cent surge in profit before tax (PBT) to N55.5 billion, and a 20.4 per cent leap in profit after tax (PAT) to N50.3 billion.
The broad-based growth across key performance indices extended to the balance sheet, with total assets expanding by 19.3 per cent to N4.67 trillion, supported by a 21.1 per cent growth in customer deposits to N3.62 trillion and disciplined expansion in the loan portfolio.
Shareholders’ funds increased in the period under review by 27.8 per cent to N547.7 billion, primarily reflecting the N96.6 billion raised through a public offer of 13.8 billion ordinary shares.
Also, return on average equity stood at 20.6 per cent and return on average assets improved to 2.35 per cent from 2.05 per cent.
The performance by Sterling Holdings was anchored by the ongoing modernisation of its technology stack and operating model across its commercial (Sterling Bank), non-interest (AltBank), and wealth management (SterlingFI) arms.
That work is showing up in faster service turnaround, tighter unit economics, and greater headroom to absorb rising customer activity without loosening its risk posture.
The combination of a reinforced capital base, expanding deposit franchise, and broader earnings mix leaves Sterling Holdings positioned to compound growth in the second half of the year, channelling capital where it earns most and continuing to lend into the real economy.
