NOVA opens new branch, says shareholders will provide more investment to meet capital requirement

Adebowale Oyedeji, the managing director of NOVA Bank Limited, says shareholders have pledged to provide more capital to support the operations of the firm.

Oyedeji spoke to TheCable on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of NOVA’s first branch as a national commercial bank in Lagos.

He said the capital, which the shareholders intend to provide via rights issue, will enable the organisation to meet the new capital requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

On March 29, the CBN announced an upward review of the minimum capital requirements for commercial, merchant, and non-interest banks.

The regulator said the increase was necessary due to prevailing macroeconomic challenges and headwinds occasioned by external and domestic shocks.

The capital base for commercial banks with international licences was raised to N500 billion, while the minimum capital requirements for national and regional licence holders were pegged at N200 billion and N50 billion, respectively.

The CBN also raised the minimum capital requirement of merchant banks with national licences to N50 billion.

In addition, the financial regulator said the new capital base for national and regional non-interest banks is now N20 billion and N10 billion, respectively.

The new policy has since forced financial institutions into the market in a race to beat the deadline of March 31, 2026.

“We have our shareholders, who last year, brought in additional capital to enable us scale the huddle to operate as a commercial bank today,” Oyedeji said.

“And they have committed that they would bring in capital via rights issue that will enable us to have the capital required before the CBN deadline.”

‘WHY WE BECAME A COMMERCIAL BANK’

On July 3, NOVA Bank announced that it had begun official operations as a national commercial bank.

Speaking on the transition, Phillips Oduoza, the company’s chairman, said the move was necessary to impact and support the overall growth of the economy.

“NOVA is one that has long-term goals of impacting the society, and this is one of the reasons why we decided to extend to commercial banking business,” he said.

“Therefore, we want to transfer that success story to the retail end of the market. We want to impact the Nigerian economy as a whole. We want to assist in job creation and the stability of the country, which Mr. President has been working on.”

Having a commercial bank, according to the chairman, gives “us a platform for more job creation in the country”.

On his part, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, thanked the bank’s shareholders and customers for their support of the organisation.

He said President Bola Tinubu has given “a tall order” to have a $1 trillion economy in the next seven to eight years, but the federal government alone cannot achieve the feat without the help of the private sector which “are the engines of growth”.

The governor said the state would continue to provide the needed enabling environment for businesses to thrive.