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GTCO, Access Holdings, UBA and Fidelity Bank have until September 30 to file audited H1 2026 results, while Zenith Bank has an October 9 deadline.
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Delayed audited accounts are limiting investors’ ability to compare profitability, asset quality, capital strength and potential dividends across major banks.
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Some lenders have already released unaudited results, widening the information gap ahead of the final quarter of 2026.
September 11, (THEWILL) – Investors in some of Nigeria’s biggest listed banks are facing an information gap as delays in audit completion and regulatory clearance push back the release of audited financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2026.
GTCO, Access Holdings, United Bank for Africa and Fidelity Bank secured extensions from the Nigerian Exchange Limited to September 30 to submit their audited half-year results.
Zenith Bank has an extended deadline of October 9, while Stanbic IBTC Holdings had earlier warned that audit completion and regulatory approvals could affect its reporting timetable.
The delays mean investors lack a common and current basis for assessing the performance of several major banking stocks.
Key metrics such as profitability, impairment charges, asset quality, capital adequacy and book value remain unavailable in audited form for the affected institutions.
Investors face a wider information gap
The timing is particularly important as investors position their portfolios for the final quarter of the year.
The delayed accounts could influence valuation models, earnings forecasts and decisions to increase, maintain or reduce exposure to individual banks.
Dividend expectations are another concern.
Without updated information on distributable earnings and capital positions, investors have less visibility on the sustainability of potential interim payouts and prospective dividend yields.
The reporting delays, however, do not in themselves mean that dividends have been cancelled or prohibited.
The affected banks are also at different stages of the reporting process.
UBA said its board approved its H1 accounts on August 13, but CBN approval remained outstanding. GTCO said its board approved its accounts on July 28, with regulatory clearance still pending.
Fidelity Bank said its audit was being finalised ahead of submission to the CBN, while Access Holdings cited both audit completion and regulatory approval.
Zenith Bank’s extension followed board approval of its accounts on July 29.
Some banks already report earnings
The contrast with banks that have published unaudited figures has made the information gap more noticeable.
FirstHoldCo, FCMB Group, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Wema Bank published unaudited H1 accounts in July under the shorter 30-day filing timetable.
FirstHoldCo reported profit after tax of ₦526.13bn, while FCMB Group posted ₦139.9bn.
Ecobank Transnational reported ₦408.81bn in profit after tax, while Wema Bank recorded profit before tax of ₦154.56bn.
These figures give investors more recent information on those institutions, although unaudited results are not necessarily directly comparable with the audited accounts still awaited from other banks.
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Dividends and CBN rules remain key
Previous dividend payments provide only limited guidance for 2026.
GTCO paid ₦1 per share, and UBA declared 25 kobo per share as interim dividends for H1 2025, but those distributions do not guarantee similar payouts this year.
The CBN’s 2025 directive requiring certain banks operating under forbearance arrangements to suspend dividends until specified capital and provisioning conditions are met has added another layer of uncertainty.
Whether such restrictions apply to a particular bank in the current reporting period requires bank-specific confirmation.
The affected banks are also attracting increased international investor attention.
GTCO, Zenith Bank and Stanbic IBTC are among Nigerian securities scheduled to enter the FTSE Frontier Index Series from September 21.
Investors are, therefore, watching both the revised filing deadlines and the quality of the numbers that eventually emerge.
Stronger-than-expected earnings, changes in asset quality, capital ratios or dividend declarations could trigger significant reassessments of bank valuations.
Further delays, however, could prolong uncertainty and make it harder for investors to price the stocks on current fundamentals.
For the market, the September 30 and October 9 deadlines have consequently become important catalysts.
The key question is no longer simply when the banks will publish their accounts, but how quickly the disclosures can restore meaningful price discovery across the banking sector.
Ogochukwu Onwaeze is a writer specializing in business and economic journalism. At THEWILL News Media, she translates market trends, financial developments, and policy shifts into clear and engaging stories.
