To Meet Lending Needs across Africa, Banks Borrow N7.8trn from IFC, Afrexim

Kayode Tokede 

In a bid to meet lending needs across Africa and fund Nigeria’s infrastructure development, 10 leading banks in Nigeria borrowed N7.81 trillion (current/non-current) from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), among other international institutions, in the 2025 financial year.

This is about a 20.2 per cent decline when compared with the N9.74 trillion borrowed by the 10 banks in 2024.

Banks operating in the country have continued to borrow from local and international financial institutions, such as the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim), the African Development Bank, and JP Morgan Securities Limited, among others, to finance key projects in Nigeria and in African countries where they operate.

The banks also access CBN facilities such as the Shared Agent Network Facility (SANEF) and the Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility (NESF) to support targeted sectors.

The banks are:   Access Holdings, Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), First HoldCo Plc and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).  

Others include: Fidelity Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Wema Bank Plc, and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc.

THISDAY’s investigation revealed that Access Holdings led other banks in borrowing from international financial institutions and the CBN in 2025, followed by First Holdco and UBA. 

THISDAY checks revealed that Access Holdings reported long- and short-term borrowing of about N2.03 trillion from Afreximbank, among others, in 2025, a 15.6 per cent drop from N2.4 trillion reported in 2024.   

In 2025, Access Holdings, a Pan-African bank, borrowed about N448.34 billion, including a $300 million term loan facility from Afrexim in July 2025. The N448.34 billion amount emerged as the highest in the year under review. 

The lender in its 2025 audited results and accounts explained that the facility has an initial tenor of six months, with an option to extend up to three years, and is priced at a floating interest rate of Term SOFR plus a margin of four per cent per annum.

While First Holdings reported N1.94 trillion in borrowings in 2025, about a 25 per cent increase over N1.56 trillion in 2024, UBA posted N924 billion in borrowings in 2025, a decline of 34 per cent from N1.39 trillion in 2024.  

According to THISDAY’s findings, GTCO had the lowest amount borrowed from CBN and international finance companies in 2025. 

Specifically, GTCO declared N82.24 billion in borrowing for 2025, about a 73.47 percent decline from N310.02 billion in 2024.  The decline in GTCO’s borrowing in 2025 was influenced by N64.1 billion from the CBN, compared with N288.4 billion reported in 2024. 

“The amount of N64,114,279,000 (December 2024: 288,376,276,000) represents the outstanding balance on Due to CBN, which represents borrowings with the financier CBN for a tenor of 2 years with a maturity date of 22nd of March 2026. The interest rate on the facility is 17%,” GTCO explained in its 2025 results and accounts released to the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).  

On its part, Zenith Bank’s borrowing was N651.16 billion in 2025, about a 68 per cent decline from N2.05 trillion in 2024, while Fidelity Bank reported N888.95 billion in borrowings in 2025, a 4.4 percent decline from N929.6 billion in 2024. 

Other lenders borrowing in 2025 are: FCMB Holdings – N365.57 billion; Stanbic IBTC Holdings- N545.3 billion; Wema Bank- N113.6 billion; and Sterling Bank – N231.44 billion.

Commenting, the Vice President of Highcap Securities, Mr. David Adnori, stated that Access Holdings needed to borrow from international financial institutions to meet its lending needs across the continent and beyond.  

According to him, Access Holdings’ access to these facilities demonstrated the confidence financial institutions and investors have in the bank’s management.

He added that Access Holdings’ borrowing, among others, is a profitable move for management. “It tends to boost liquidity and gives the bank more capability to lend to targeted sectors,” he said.

Adnori further added that banks needed to access these funds from international financial institutions and CBN facilities to boost earnings and expand lending to critical sectors.

He noted that most monetary agencies prefer to lend these funds to banks, given their track records in Africa, most especially in Nigeria, where they thrive in a challenging operating environment.