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Currency depreciation has done more damage to Nigerian bank valuations, in dollar terms, than any operational shortfall.

The combined market capitalization of Nigeria’s top five lenders — FirstHoldCo, Zenith Bank, GTCO, UBA and Access Bank — stood at $16.4 billion (then ₦2.664 trillion) in July 2014, data compiled by MoneyCentral shows.

Today, that combined value has fallen to roughly $13.72 billion, even though the naira-denominated figure has risen sharply to nearly ₦19 trillion — a function of the naira’s collapse from roughly ₦160–176 per dollar in 2014 to more than ₦1,340–1,400 per dollar in 2026.

FirstRand alone tells the opposite story. South Africa’s largest lender by market value has grown from a $23.1 billion (R243.27 billion) market cap in 2014 to roughly $32 billion today — meaning one South African bank is now worth more in dollar terms than all five of Nigeria’s largest lenders combined, data compiled by MoneyCentral shows.

The lesson for investors is that Nigerian bank earnings and book values, even when growing briskly in naira terms, have to run simply to stand still in dollar terms — a dynamic that likely explains part of the persistent valuation discount demanded by foreign portfolio investors.

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