Nigerian Zenith Bank will open a location in France in the upcoming months, according to CEO Ebenezer Onyeagwu.
According to Onyeagwu, the bank and the French government have inked a Memorandum of Understanding to begin the process of issuing a banking license, which will allow the bank to begin operations in France. The CEO did not, however, specify when the process of issuing licenses would be finished.
Zenith’s relocation to France is similar to Access Bank’s 2024 planned relocation to Asia, making it Nigeria’s largest lender by assets.
With subsidiaries now operating in The Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and China, Zenith joins a number of other Nigerian commercial banks that provide cross-border trade to clients on an international scale.
The bank wants to establish itself as a leader in the retail and commercial sectors and promote cross-border marketing. With customer deposits of ₦13.38 trillion ($177.06 billion), the bank has seen substantial growth just this year. In the third quarter of 2023, its earnings increased by 149% to ₦505 billion ($6.3 billion).
