When Nigeria’s banks have finished reporting their 2012 results in the coming weeks, they will likely have gone a long way to proving that their recovery from the 2009 crisis, which brought the industry to its knees, is complete. That crisis, which forced the government to bail out almost half the country’s lenders and set up a state-owned bad bank to take on billions of dollars of non-performing loans (NPLs) from across the sector, was still being felt in 2011, when several institutions made losses.
But analysts are optimistic that the latest results will mark a turning point. Bolaji Balogun, managing partner of Chapel Hill Denham, a local advisory firm, says it is feasible that eight or nine banks will announce pre-tax earnings of more than $100m, while three could pass the $500m mark, which would be a first for the country. “I think we’ll see some sterling numbers,” he says.