FirstBank

First Bank spent 2025 and 2026 rebuilding in public, under close watch. FBN Holdings Plc renamed itself First HoldCo Plc during 2025, and audited results showed gross earnings rising 6.9% to ₦3.4 trillion, though profit before tax fell to ₦235 billion after the group absorbed ₦826.3 billion in impairment charges as part of a deliberate, conservative clean-up of its loan book.

That strategy appears to be paying off: First HoldCo's first quarter of 2026 delivered its strongest results in years, with profit before tax jumping 72.2% year-on-year to ₦321 billion and customer deposits reaching ₦18.4 trillion, with a current-and-savings-account ratio of 93.8% that the group points to as proof of a deep, low-cost deposit base. FirstBank hit the CBN's ₦500 billion minimum capital requirement ahead of the March 2026 deadline under chairman Femi Otedola's multi-stage recapitalisation strategy, then pushed further, closing a ₦45 billion private placement tranche and winning shareholder approval for a further ₦253 billion raise, aiming for a ₦1 trillion paid-up capital base, double the regulatory floor and enough to put pressure on its FUGAZ peers to match it; First HoldCo's share price rose more than 57% year-to-date on the improving sentiment.

On leadership, Olusegun Alebiosu remains MD/CEO of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, having taken the role on a substantive basis in mid-2024, with the executive bench reinforced by the May 2026 appointment of Dr Julius Omodayo-Owotuga as an Executive Director focused on finance, governance and risk. For a 132-year-old institution that has spent the past two years simultaneously rebranding, recapitalising, and turning around its earnings quality, First Bank heads into the rest of 2026 looking less like a legacy brand coasting on history and more like one actively trying to earn back its old position at the top of Nigerian banking. Its customer base, spanning traditional accounts and digital wallets, has grown past 43.5 million, with digital channel users above 27 million.