Q1 2026: First Holdco declares 72% increase in profit
First Holdco Plc delivered a masterclass performance in its first-quarter 2026 financials, recording a 72per cent year-on-year profit before tax (PBT) growth.
Profit before tax (PBT) jumped to N321 billion from N186.47 billion in the corresponding period of 2025, supported by steady interest-earning capacity and robust fee income generation.
The first quarter of 2026 marked a definitive pivot for FirstHoldCo, as the parent entity of Nigeria’s oldest commercial bank re-established itself as a financial powerhouse.
Emerging from a period of aggressive balance sheet restructuring characterized by massive legacy debt write-offs in late 2025, the group’s Q1 2026 performance represents a “phoenix-like” Strategic reset.
Post its 2025 balance-sheet cleanup, FirstHoldco’s Q1 2026 results also established the group as the second-largest Nigerian lender by absolute profit before tax.
This renaissance is not merely a product of the high-interest-rate environment currently prevailing in Nigeria, where the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has maintained its hawkish stance with a 26.5per cent Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to anchor inflation.
Rather, it is the result of a deliberate “kitchen-sinking” of bad assets in the 2025 financial year, which saw the group take a historic N830 billion impairment charge to resolve historical asset quality concerns once and for all.
This strategic “cleansing” has liberated the balance sheet to capture the full upside of the current lending cycle, allowing FirstHoldCo to lead the market in the most critical measures of shareholder value creation.
First Holdco’s standout metric for the first quarter of 2026 is its Return on Equity (ROE). This parameter serves as the ultimate barometer for management’s ability to generate earnings from the capital entrusted to them by shareholders.
For Q1 2026, FirstHoldCo delivered a post-tax ROE of 31.6per cent, effectively eclipsing the entire FUGAZ group. This represents a staggering turnaround from the 4.6per cent recorded in December 2025, which was heavily weighed down by the balance sheet reset.
The leadership in ROE is particularly noteworthy given the simultaneous recapitalization efforts across the industry, which naturally exerts downward pressure on ROE and indicates that FirstHoldCo’s earnings power is scaling faster than its capital dilution.
FirstHoldCo’s outperformance is structurally rooted in its superior asset yield, particularly within its loan book. Unlike some peers who have historically relied on the “carry trade” of government securities, FirstHoldCo has aggressively pivoted toward private sector credit. In Q1 2026, the group generated N466 billion in interest income from loans and advances to customers, representing a 28per cent increase from the prior year.
This growth in customer loan income is significantly higher than that of its closest rivals. FirstHoldCo is finding higher-quality lending opportunities in a tight liquidity environment.
