Nigeria has built Africa’s largest banking customer base, but it is yet to produce the continent’s biggest banks by assets, exposing a structural gap between financial inclusion and financial depth.
For years, Africa’s banking hierarchy appeared settled. South Africa dominated by balance-sheet size, Egypt benefited from enormous domestic liquidity, while Moroccan lenders expanded aggressively across Francophone Africa. Nigerian banks, despite their continental ambitions, remained influential regional players.
Access Bank reports about 60 million customers, the highest among lenders reviewed for this analysis. UBA and OPay each report about 45 million users, followed by FirstBank with 43 million, PalmPay with 40 million, Zenith Bank with 36.7 million and GTCO with 32.8 million.
Yet the balance-sheet ranking tells a different story.
According to the 2025 African Business Top 100 African Banks ranking, based on the latest available financial statements, the continent’s largest banking groups remain concentrated in South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and
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