WorldStage– Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of South Africa’s FirstRand Group, kept its rank among the first five banks through which over 90 percent of imported capital flowed to Nigeria in 2025.
In the final quarter report the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics released recently Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria (RMBN) facilitated 7.2 percent of $6.4 billion foreign inflow last year. That made it the highest in merchant banking and the fifth highest in the industry.
The bank boasts of its parent’s company dominance of the India-African trade and investment corridor, which explains why South Africa, with 8.2 percent, ranked the third source of foreign capital import to Nigeria last year.
The five merchant banks in the report accounted for 8.3 percent ($1.86 billion) of the capital import that year, 1.6 percent increase, compared to $1.83 billion the year before. RMBN facilitated $1.64 billion of that, ahead of Nova Merchant Bank’s $41.4 million
The increase signifies the potential of the merchant banking segment to stimulate Nigeria’s economy. Many of the six players there, including RMBN, have each grown their capital bases to the N50 billion minimum the CBN requires, from N15 billion for the last recapitalization eight years ago.
As usual, and for reasons similar to RMBN’s, Stanbic IBTC imported $7.8 billion, 35 percent of the 2025 capital inflow. Standard Chartered Bank accounted for 28.8 percent, ahead of Citibank and Access Bank in that order.
