Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Nigeria’s largest lender by market value, has successfully raised and injected N365.9 billion into its banking unit, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank). This strategic capital injection ensures GTBank's compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) new minimum capital requirement of N500 billion for commercial banks holding international authorization. Following this move, GTBank’s share capital has been significantly increased from N138,186,703,485.78 to N504,037,107,058.45.

This achievement makes GTCO the third among Nigeria’s five largest lenders to reach this crucial milestone, following Access Holdings and Zenith Bank. The N365.9 billion capital injection was primarily funded through GTCO's two-phased equity capital raising programme. The second leg of this program, a rights issue, involved the sale of approximately 7 billion ordinary shares, contributing to the total consideration. An earlier phase, an offer for subscription, had previously sourced N209.4 billion from investors.

The newly injected capital is earmarked for ambitious scale-up plans for GTBank. These plans include the expansion of its branch network, fortification of its information technology infrastructure, growth of its asset base, enlargement of its loan book and investment portfolio, and the capitalization on emerging opportunities across the markets where it operates. GTCO has also diversified its operations in recent years, branching out from core commercial banking into payments, pensions, and asset management. In pursuit of broader investor access, the holding company cross-listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange in July, where it priced a dollar equity offer of $105 million ordinary shares.

The CBN's revised capital rules, announced on March 28, 2024, mandate that banks with national and regional authorizations must increase their core capital to N200 billion from N25 billion, and to N50 billion from N10 billion respectively, by March 31, 2026. The N500 billion requirement specifically targets commercial banks with international licences. Despite the significant capital raise, GTCO has confirmed that it continues to hold 100% of the entire issued and paid-up share capital of GTBank, with none of its directors holding a direct or indirect stake in the bank. In July, the CBN noted that only eight banks had fully met their recapitalisation requirements at that time.