6 banks pay over N751bn tax to govt in 2024

Six banks paid N751.796 billion as income tax to the Federal and State Governments and agencies for the 2024 financial year ended on December 31, 2024.

The figure represents a 189.9 per cent increase from the N395.79 billion tax paid in the 2023 financial year.

A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent that monitored the banks audited statements on Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) platform reveals that the banks also recorded profits in their earnings.

The banks analysed include Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and Wema Bank Plc.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) paid N248 billion as against N69.65 billion paid in the corresponding period of 2023.

Zenith Bank Plc paid N293.956 billion against N119.1 billion paid as income tax expenses in 2023, while Fidelity Bank Plc paid N93.777 billion for 2024 FY against N24,806 billion paid in 2023.

UBA Plc paid N37.15 billion as against N149.98 billion paid in 2023, Stanbic IBTC Plc paid N78. 485 billion against N32.290 billion paid as tax in 2023.

Wema Bank Plc paid N16.2 million to the government as against N7.675 million paid in 2023.

The banks listed categories of taxes paid to include corporate tax, and withholding tax on dividend income.

Others according to them are education tax and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure- Information Technology (IT) levy, Police Trust Fund, windfall levy/tax and deferred tax among others.

Reacting to the tax increase, Mr Okechukwu Unegbu,a financial expert and a former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) said the tax increase would be beneficial to the government

Unegbu stressed the need for more companies, especially government-owned, to list on the stock exchange market.

The financial expert who said that only about 140 companies were listed on the country’s stock market, said that no fewer than 3,000 companies were listed in the market in other countries.

He frowned at the delay by the government to list the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in the stock market.

Unegbu appealed to the government to list its owned companies in the stock market to encourage other private companies to list.