Zenith Bank's profit before tax increased by 1.24 percent to N928.8 billion in the nine months ended September 2026, compared with N917.4 billion in the same period of 2025, according to the bank's unaudited financial statements. The modest growth came despite significant headwinds, as gross earnings fell 15 percent to N2.87 trillion from N3.37 trillion. The bank's ability to maintain profitability hinged on a sharp reduction in credit impairment charges, which dropped 70.5 percent to N230.77 billion from N782.76 billion, easing the cost of managing credit risks across its loan portfolio.
A major drag on earnings was trading income, where the bank swung from a N277.65 billion gain to a N229.19 billion loss, a negative swing of approximately N506.85 billion. This weakness was only partly offset by stronger performance in fee-based services. Net fee and commission income grew 26.6 percent to N256.85 billion from N202.94 billion, driven by increased contributions from transaction and other banking services. Net interest income remained relatively flat at N1.93 trillion, as growth in interest income was offset by lower interest expenses. Interest income fell 4.5 percent to N2.62 trillion, while interest expenses declined 15.4 percent to N688.73 billion, highlighting the importance of deposit pricing and funding management.
Operating expenses jumped 18.4 percent to N1.02 trillion from N858.67 billion, driven by higher technology costs, which rose to N97.88 billion from N68.12 billion, and increased personnel expenses, which climbed 17.1 percent to N213.15 billion from N182.08 billion. Fuel and maintenance costs also increased to N92 billion from N65.83 billion. Despite the improvement in profit before tax, profit after tax fell 11.6 percent to N675.83 billion from N764.20 billion, largely because income tax expense surged 65.1 percent to N252.97 billion from N153.21 billion. Earnings per share consequently declined to N16.41 from N18.60.
Geographically, Nigeria remained the bank's largest earnings contributor but weakened, with domestic profit before tax falling to N680.54 billion from N772.87 billion. In contrast, the rest of Africa showed improvement, with profit before tax rising to N195.36 billion from N168.26 billion, while the European business declined to N55.53 billion from N72.39 billion. The bank's balance sheet expanded, with total assets rising to N34.39 trillion from N31.18 trillion, customer deposits increasing 14.5 percent to N27.11 trillion, and loans and advances growing 24.2 percent to N11.64 trillion. On the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Zenith Bank closed at N120.00 per share on its last trading day, up 94.2 percent from its opening price of N61.80 at the start of the year, ranking it 24th in year-to-date performance.