Tekedia Institute is delighted to congratulate Dr. Julius Omodayo-Owotuga on his appointment as Executive Director of First Bank Nigeria, effective May 13, 2026. Good People, one of Nigeria’s finest professionals has ascended to yet another important leadership position, and from all of us at Tekedia, we celebrate JB Omodayo-Owotuga, FCA, CFA, DBA on this remarkable milestone.

Beyond professional excellence, JB and the Omodayo-Owotuga family have demonstrated a deep commitment to investing in people. Through a multi-year endowment established in memory of Late Most Supreme Apostle Matthew Omodayo Owotuga, hundreds of young people have attended Tekedia Mini-MBA through scholarships provided at no cost to the beneficiaries.

Even in our upcoming edition beginning in June, another cohort of scholars from the Owotuga Foundation will join the program, continuing a legacy of empowering and developing future leaders.

Good People, leadership is not only measured by positions attained but also by lives impacted. Through the Owotuga Family initiative, many young people have gained access to knowledge and opportunities which have shaped their careers. We know the number of recommendation letters we complete monthly as scholars and learners ascend to higher levels.

For First Bank, I expect the elephant to discover new dance moves. We wish JB and the entire First Bank Team continued success and many more wins ahead. And on a lighter note, perhaps now is the right time to open a First Bank branch in Ovim, Abia State. Ovim sons and daughters will ensure the bank has adequate deposits to make this branch a profit-center.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Chief Executive Officer Segun Agbaje says the banking group is no longer worried about the competitive threat posed by fintech companies, explaining that the rapid growth of its digital payments subsidiary, HabariPay, has positioned the group to compete aggressively in Nigeria’s evolving financial technology market.

Speaking during an interview with NairaMetric’s CEO, Ugo Obi-Chukwu, on the sidelines of GTCO’s annual general meeting in Lagos, Agbaje said the company deliberately responded to the rise of fintech disruptors by building its own digital payments infrastructure rather than attempting to resist the shift reshaping the banking industry.

“Everybody was really nervous about fintech, so we built our own speed boat. That’s Habari,” Agbaje said.

“Habari is competing very, very effectively and it means we are not scared about the threat of fintechs any longer. We have a very strong engine to compete with them.”

The remarks mark a shift from how Nigeria’s major banking groups viewed fintech companies as existential disruptors.

For years, investors and analysts questioned whether traditional banks could withstand mounting pressure from agile fintech firms offering faster onboarding, lower transaction costs, and digital-first payment solutions. Companies such as Flutterwave, Moniepoint, OPay, and PalmPay transformed Nigeria’s payments landscape by rapidly expanding agency banking, transfers, merchant services, and mobile wallets.

The rise of those firms triggered concerns that legacy banks risked losing transaction revenues, customer engagement, and younger digital users.

GTCO’s latest results suggest the group believes it has found a workable counterstrategy by embedding fintech operations within its existing banking structure while leveraging its low-cost deposit base and established customer network.

HabariPay posted a profit after tax of N9.7 billion in 2025, representing a 155% jump from N3.8 billion recorded in 2024. Operating income rose 122% from N5.8 billion to N12.9 billion over the same period. The company’s rapid growth highlights how digital payments are becoming increasingly central to banking profitability in Nigeria as lenders seek to reduce dependence on traditional interest income in a volatile macroeconomic environment.

Although operating expenses doubled to N3.2 billion as HabariPay expanded operations, the business maintained strong efficiency levels and recorded no loan impairment charges or tax expenses during the year. The performance made HabariPay the strongest contributor among GTCO’s non-banking subsidiaries in 2025.

Guaranty Trust Fund Managers generated N9 billion in profit, while Guaranty Trust Pension Managers posted N1.7 billion in earnings.

Agbaje described the subsidiaries as increasingly important pillars within GTCO’s broader financial ecosystem.

“These are our little babies and it’s working perfectly for us,” he said.

“GTBank, if you look at it like a factory, is a low cost operator. So where we’re losing money to yield in the past to other people, we’re now losing it to ourselves within our ecosystem.”

That comment reflects a broader transformation underway in African banking, where financial groups are increasingly attempting to internalise high-growth revenue streams that previously migrated to standalone fintech firms. Rather than competing solely through conventional banking products, lenders are now building ecosystems spanning payments, pensions, asset management, digital lending, and merchant services.

The strategy also helps banks diversify revenue away from interest-rate cycles and sovereign debt exposure, particularly important in Nigeria, where lenders have historically generated large profits from government securities and currency-related gains.

Agbaje said GTCO’s 2025 earnings quality remained strong even after the fading of major revaluation gains that boosted profits in 2024 following the naira devaluation.

“For us, it’s been a really good year. 2025 quality of earnings was really good. It has allowed us to pay a healthy dividend. All indices are right. We made up the revaluation gains of 2024. Core business is strong,” he said.

His comments appear aimed partly at reassuring investors that GTCO’s profitability is becoming more structurally diversified rather than overly dependent on one-off foreign exchange windfalls. The group has also been expanding geographically to reduce concentration risk tied to Nigeria’s economic volatility.
According to Agbaje, international operations contributed 27% of group profit in 2025, while Nigeria accounted for 73%. He identified Ghana as one of GTCO’s strongest-performing foreign markets.

“We’re diversifying the earnings from outside of Nigeria, but Nigeria is still the mothership,” he said.

“Ultimately, the diversification gives us strength. It’ll give us a competitive edge and we’re hoping to break the country’s sovereign risk rating by diversifying the earnings strong enough outside one geographical location.”

The reference to sovereign risk matters because Nigerian banks remain heavily influenced by the country’s macroeconomic conditions, including inflation, exchange-rate instability, fiscal pressures, and regulatory policy shifts. By increasing contributions from foreign subsidiaries and fee-based businesses, GTCO is attempting to reduce vulnerability to domestic economic shocks.

Agbaje also defended the group’s long-term strategy at a time when some investors had earlier questioned the stock’s valuation and growth trajectory.

“I remember we were trying to get people to buy this stock at 44 Naira and we’re trying to convince them. I think what has happened is vindication for us,” he said.

GTCO recently completed a N500 billion capital raise as Nigerian banks prepare for new regulatory capital requirements imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Agbaje stressed that the capital raise increases the group’s responsibility toward shareholders, particularly retail investors who depend heavily on dividends.

“Anytime you go out and collect people’s monies, you have a sense of responsibility,” he said. “We have a lot of retail investors, and retail investors rely on dividends for day-to-day life, for expenses, for school fees, for things.”

On pensions, Agbaje said GTCO intends to maintain a measured expansion strategy because of the long-term structure of the business.

“It’s a fee-based business, fixed income, so you have to grow carefully. Can’t do crazy acquisitions because the ROIs will work, but it’s a three-year journey for us,” he explained.

However, the broader significance of GTCO’s strategy lies in how traditional African banks are adapting to technological disruption. Instead of being displaced by fintech firms, several major lenders are increasingly absorbing fintech capabilities into integrated ecosystems that combine digital scale with banking licenses, large customer bases, and cheaper funding structures.

That transition may ultimately reshape the competitive balance in Nigeria’s financial sector, where the line separating banks from fintech companies is becoming progressively harder to define.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded their summit in Beijing on Thursday with an agreement to guide bilateral ties under a new framework of “strategic stability,” offering a pragmatic pause in years of intense friction over trade, technology, security, and human rights.

The meeting, characterized by cordial gestures and attended by top U.S. business executives, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, produced several concrete discussion points while underscoring that fundamental differences, especially on Taiwan, remain unresolved.

Key Outcomes from the Summit

• New Guiding Framework: The two leaders agreed to pursue a “constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.” Xi described this as the overarching direction for the next three years and beyond, centered on cooperation paired with “measured competition” and “manageable differences.” He emphasized that the framework “must be translated into concrete actions.”
• Positive Momentum from Pre-Summit Talks: Xi noted that trade envoys achieved “overall balanced and positive outcomes” during preparatory meetings in South Korea. He welcomed greater U.S. commercial engagement, stating, “China’s door to opening up will only open wider.”
• Expanded Cooperation Areas: Both sides committed to better utilizing diplomatic and military communication channels. Discussions covered deeper economic and trade ties, agriculture, tourism, and market access. Trump pressed for stronger Chinese action against fentanyl flows into the U.S. and increased purchases of American agricultural products.
• Middle East and Energy Security: The leaders stressed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open. Xi opposed the “militarization” of the waterway and “any effort to charge a toll for its use.” China expressed interest in buying more U.S. oil to reduce dependence on Middle Eastern supplies. Both countries agreed that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
• Taiwan Remains the Core Flashpoint: Xi reserved his strongest language for Taiwan, calling it “the most important issue in U.S.-China relations.” He warned: “Handle it well, the relationship holds; handle it badly, the two countries risk collision or conflict.”

Chinese markets reacted with cautious optimism. The Hang Seng Tech Index rose around 0.5%, and the broader Hang Seng Index gained roughly 0.3% on Thursday. While gains were modest compared to rallies in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, many investors viewed the summit as a tactical positive.

Goldman Sachs analysts had anticipated focused discussions on trade, tariffs, semiconductor restrictions, and rare earths. They expect China to ramp up purchases of U.S. agriculture, energy, and aircraft in exchange for avoiding escalated tariffs. The bank described the meeting as a potential “tactical catalyst” for the Chinese yuan and equities.

A notable development came shortly after the summit when Reuters reported that Washington cleared sales of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to several major Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, and JD.com. This represents a meaningful breakthrough for China’s AI sector.

Jiong Shao, China internet analyst at Barclays, highlighted the stakes, saying: “The most important competitive arena today, especially between U.S. and China, is in AI, and the greatest bottleneck today in AI is compute.”

He added that access to Nvidia’s latest chips “is very, very critical for the Chinese players to compete on a global stage.”

Recent strong cloud and AI-related earnings from Alibaba and Tencent have also lifted sentiment. Analysts note that Chinese tech giants may be “a few quarters behind the U.S.” in realizing returns on their AI capital expenditure.

Despite the positive tone, investors remain selective. Dong Chen, chief investment officer at Bank J Safra Sarasin, sees the summit as a near-term catalyst but cautions that China’s equity market still faces an earnings problem.

“The problem with the Chinese equity market… is still earnings,” he said, noting a divergence between strong-performing mainland A-shares in hardware and AI versus many Hong Kong-listed internet firms.

Some traders adopted a wait-and-see approach. Jeff Mei, COO of BTSE Group, observed: “We believe that some traders are in a wait-and-see mode, taking profit and hedging their positions in the event that the U.S.-China summit fails to meet expectations.”

Economist Tianchen Xu of the Economist Intelligence Unit summarized the broader significance. He notes that while frictions will continue, the new framework provides “a guardrail, and things won’t spiral out of the two sides’ control as they nearly did in 2025.”

The Beijing summit indicates a mutual desire for stability rather than a fundamental thaw. It offers potential relief on inflation, supply chains, and fentanyl to the U.S. For China, it provides breathing room for economic recovery and technological development amid domestic challenges.

The presence of key American tech leaders and the swift Nvidia chip approval signal that both sides recognize the high costs of total decoupling in the critical AI domain. Yet the sharp language on Taiwan and the emphasis on “measured competition” make clear that rivalry remains the dominant underlying dynamic.

Markets will now watch closely for follow-through actions, increased agricultural and energy purchases, implementation of new export licenses, and whether this “strategic stability” can withstand inevitable future tests. For the time being, the world’s two largest economies have chosen managed coexistence over escalation.