With Nigeria’s banking landscape poised to welcome a new entrant, Summit Bank Limited, in the NIB segment,  Biztellers looks at what it might have in common with its established counterpart, Zenith Bank Plc.

A Striking Parallel

With the flag of Summit Bank Limited, a non-interest bank (NIB), about being raised in Nigeria’s financial services sector, Nigeria’s sixth NIB is set to open to the public. And based on the people behind the new entrant, curious minds are pondering what it might have in common with one of Nigeria’s most successful financial institutions, Zenith Bank Plc.

Their thoughts flow in the direction of what legendary Nigerian writer, Prof Chinua Achebe, pointed out in his famous novel, Things Fall Apart, that ‘A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches’.

The interest of watchers of the Nigerian financial services space has thrown up several lines of thoughts, including the similitude in meaning of the two words, summit and zenith, the people behind the new bank, the likely impact of the background of founders in the banking sector, the brand promises and what customers can look forward to.

According to dictionary.com, summit is a noun, ‘the highest point or part, as of a hill, a line of travel, or any object; top; apex.’ On the other part, zenith is listed as similar in meaning to summit by the same source, which defines it as ‘a highest point or state; culmination,’ or ‘the point on the celestial sphere vertically above a given position or observer.’

With Summit Bank Limited poised to open to customers any moment from now, analysts aver that those behind the incoming bank might be eager to replicate the Zenith success streak.

The buzz among the Nigerian banking elite, Biztellers findings show, is that Summit is coming with an assurance of high performance, great success, or a good measure of optimal achievement.

These positive sentiments, Biztellers can report, are hinged on the people behind the new NIB.

With a serious gaze on the horizon, watchers are quick to notice the presence of Dr. Mukhtar Adam at Summit.

A quick online query shows that Dr. Adam, Summit Bank’s Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer was at Zenith Bank for 17 years. Interestingly, for six of the 17 he served as Group Chief Finance Officer (GCFO).

A banker, who doesn’t want her name in print wondered if Dr. Adam was merely an extension of his former employers. ‘Being one who was loyal to Zenith Bank and played an active part in its great strides, could it be that his former employers have a hand in the emergence of Summit Bank?’

While the public waits for the answers to this and other posers, the website of the new NIB, has it that it is coming with a vision ‘to be the leading ethical bank, supporting stakeholders for common growth and prosperity’.

It also aspires to be ‘the trusted partner, providing ethical banking solutions that empower individuals and communities while making a positive impact in the lives of stakeholders for a prosperous society.’

While the extent to which these promises would be delivered are yet in the belly of history what is fact is that Nigeria’s newest NIB ‘was incorporated on 15th July 2024, as a limited liability company and licensed on 5th February 2025, by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide non-interest banking services to the public.’

The website added that customers can look forward to ‘non-interest-based transactions’, as it ‘emphasises profit-and-loss sharing arrangements, ethical investments, and risk-sharing partnerships with its clients. This model aims to promote financial inclusion, social justice, economic equity and moral accountability.’

A host of watchers told Biztellers that its claim of being ‘a forward-thinking Nigerian financial institution established to redefine banking through innovation, customer-centric solutions, and a strong commitment to integrity and excellence’, would be tested in the coming days and years.

Notable Hands of Existing Banks in Formation of New Banks

A look at Nigeria’s banking sector shows that some of the flourishing brands were made by people, often driven by ambition to leave well-established banks to found new ones.

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Some quick examples include Access Bank and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), both of which rose from the efforts of people who left established banks to show their stuff, which has seen them playing big in Nigeria’s baking space, thereafter.

In the case of Access, it was founded in 1988 and incorporated as a private commercial bank in February 1989. Commencing operations on 11 May 1989, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede was appointed managing director in 2002, while Herbert Wigwe held the Deputy Managing Director position. The mandate was clear, the founding executives set for themselves the tall order of raising the bank from 65th place in 2002 to the top 10 in 2007. The interesting thing remains that the duo came from the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) with their experience, which watchers are convinced played a role in the mandate they were saddled with and what they have made of the Access Bank Group.

A similar fate played out in the UBA, with the unforgettable impact of its chairman, Tony Elumelu.

It remains fresh on the minds of Nigeria’s banking community that Elumelu – aside leading the acquisition of a bigger bank, the UBA, by a smaller one, the Standard Trust Bank (STB) – could only do that because he had the ambition and experience of working at various financial institutions before the daring move.

His bio, shows that he trained as an Economist and practiced banking starting from the Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN), to All States Trust Bank before leaving to lead a small group of investors to take over a struggling Crystal Bank, which he renamed STB. The success he made of the STB witnessed the shocking purchase of UBA in 2005. But that is not the catch; what has kept tongues wagging till date is the consequent transformation of the UBA, a not-so-strong-brand at the time of acquisition, into Africa’s respected global bank.

Nigeria’s banking firmament is littered with several other stories of people moving with one financial institution’s legacy to form or takeover another and making a success of it. This scent is all over the newest entrant into the NIB segment, Summit.

These vivid examples are part of what is fuelling the speculation that Zenith might be on a mission to hoist its flag in the NIB segment, using its former GCFO. Whether that turns out true or false, it is definite that the learnings from Dr. Adam’s sojourn at Zenith would remain a plus for the emerging entity.

Is NIB a New Banking Craze in Nigeria?

According to the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the non-interest-banks operating in Nigeria include Jaiz Bank, Taj Bank, The Alternative Bank, Lotus Bank Limited and Summit Bank Limited.

Facts from banking industry regulator, the CBN, show that Jaiz Bank is Nigeria’s maiden NIB. Biztellers’ investigations reveal that it was founded in 2003, as Jaiz International Plc, while it was licensed as a regional bank on November 11, 2011, and opened for business January 6, 2012.

While the Nigerian economy, particularly the banking sector, awaits the latest entrant pondering if the NIB is the new craze in banking in this part of the world, information available on Anderson Nigeria’s site points out that NIB was born in the early twentieth century.’

The coming days would offer a clearer insight into what the founders of the latest NIB would bring to the table of financial services in Africa’s most populous country.

New entrants into the banking space raise a particular kind of excitement especially now that the entire sector is going through a recapitalisation process.