Only six banks have met the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive on dividend payout by commercial banks and discount houses. They are: Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), First
City Monument Bank (FCMB), Wema Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA).
This was contained in a report released on Monday by Afrinvest West Africa, an investment and research firm.
For meeting the CBN’s minimum requirement for Capital Adequacy Ration
(CAR), these banks are excluded from the restrictions on dividend
payment.
On the criteria that require lenders to meet the minimum Capital
Adequacy Ratio (CAR) before dividend payout, the research firm said all
the banks under its coverage, save for Unity and Union, met the minimum
requirement stipulated by the CBN.
“For Unity, the current CAR (as at nine month 2017) is unavailable
while Union Bank had a CAR of 13.3 per cent (below CBN requirement of 15
per cent in first half of 2017). We envisage Union’s CAR will improve
by fiscal year 2017, adjusting for the capital raise of N50 billion via
rights issue in 2017,” it said.
Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Sterling and Union Bank
are restricted to a maximum of 30% maximum payout ratio, with respective
NPL ratio above five per cent but below 10%.