Zenith Bank

The Nigerian banking industry of the early 1990s was led by a select group of four major banks: Union Bank, First Bank, UBA, and Afribank.

In 1990 Jim Ovia founded Zenith bank plc to compete with the existing four major banks.[5] Zenith Bank was established in May 1990 and commenced banking operations in July of the same year. At inception, it had a capital base of $4 million. It began operations during a period of government liberalization of the banking sector when the central bank granted up to twenty banking licenses a year to investors. The bank's first office was originally a residential house in Victoria Island that was modified into a banking hall. In its early years, the bank witnessed a period of rapid growth.[6] In 1997, following a directive for banking institutions to shore up their capital base, Zenith increased its capitalization to 500 million naira.[7]

In 1999, Zenith bank embraced the use of the internet for marketing financial services and to promote the use of online banking by consumers and becoming one of the earliest companies to invest in online banking.[8] In the early 2000s, Zenith's profile began to rise, its investments in information technology helped it compete against the major banks that had a larger branch outreach and it soon began to announce net profits comparable to some of the older big banks.[6]

On 17 June 2004, following a successful IPO, the bank became a public limited company. On 21 October 2004 its shares of the stock were listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE). The bank's shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) following a listing of the $850 million worth of its shares at $6.80 each, in 2013.[1][9]

The bank has equity investments in Zenith Custodian, Zenith Securities, and Zenith General Insurance.