Nigerian billionaire Jim Ovia's Zenith Bank stake hits $643 million as shares surge

Jim Ovia is no longer chairman of Zenith Bank. He stepped down on May 5, 2026, after completing the mandatory 12-year tenure prescribed under the Central Bank of Nigeria's corporate governance guidelines, with Engineer Mustafa Bello appointed in his place. His title changed. His exposure to Zenith's future did not.

In the months surrounding his exit, Ovia was buying shares. He now holds approximately 16.2 percent of Zenith Bank, equivalent to around 5.08 billion shares, up from the 11 to 12 percent range disclosed in 2024 filings. That accumulation included a N14.8 billion share purchase in December 2025 alone. It was not the behaviour of a founder preparing to distance himself from what he built. It was the behaviour of someone who believed the best was still ahead.

So far in 2026, that conviction has been vindicated in a way that makes Ovia the standout winner among Nigeria's 30 richest NGX investors.

Zenith Bank opened the year at N61.80 per share. It is now trading at N131.80. That is a gain of 113 percent in five months, the single best performance among all the primary listed holdings tracked across Billionaires.Africa's February 2026 ranking of Nigeria's top NGX investors. At his current stake size, Ovia's Zenith holding is worth approximately N669 billion, or $643 million at the current official exchange rate of N1,373 to the dollar.

But the naira story matters here almost as much as the stock story. At the time of the February 2026 ranking, the dollar was trading at approximately N1,460. It is now at N1,373. The naira has strengthened by roughly 6 percent against the dollar since January, which means every naira gain on the NGX has converted into an even larger dollar gain than the share price movement alone suggests. This is the double benefit flowing to wealthy Nigerians with significant listed equity positions in 2026: their stocks are up, and the currency those stocks are priced in has gotten stronger at the same time. Ovia's position illustrates that dynamic more clearly than almost anyone else on the exchange.

Dangote Cement, by contrast, is down roughly 21 percent in naira terms since January. Geregu Power is essentially flat. MTN Nigeria opened the year at N511, surged to N819 in March after the FTSE Russell frontier market reclassification drove foreign capital into liquid NGX names, then round-tripped all the way back to N511. Seplat Energy briefly crossed the N10,000 mark in April before pulling back to around N6,171. Zenith alone has held its gains and kept compounding.

The bank itself has given investors good reasons to stay. Zenith closed 2025 with interest income of N3.6 trillion, up from N2.7 trillion in 2024. Post-tax profit reached N1.04 trillion. In the first quarter of 2026, the bank posted an unaudited pre-tax profit of N360.92 billion, a 2.87 percent year-on-year increase, with post-tax profit rising modestly to N314.02 billion. In April 2026, Zenith became the first Nigerian lender to cross the N5 trillion market capitalisation threshold, making it the country's most valuable banking group.

Operationally, the institution Ovia spent 36 years building has continued to expand. Zenith launched a subsidiary in Côte d'Ivoire, its entry point into Francophone West Africa. It completed the full acquisition of Paramount Bank in Kenya, adding an East African presence. It commissioned a new branch in Manchester in March 2026. These are the moves of a bank in acceleration, not consolidation.

Ovia founded Zenith in June 1990 with N20 million in shareholders' funds, roughly $4 million at the exchange rate of the time. He served as Group Managing Director and Chief Executive from inception through 2010, then returned as group chairman on July 16, 2014. His 12-year clock on that position ran out this May. The CBN rule that ended his board tenure is designed to prevent founders from entrenching themselves at the top of institutions they built. It removed his chairmanship. It left him as the bank's single most consequential individual shareholder.

The broader point applies across Nigeria's investor class. Every wealthy Nigerian with a significant NGX position has benefited in 2026 from a combination of rising share prices and a strengthening naira. The dollar-converted gains are larger than the naira gains alone would suggest. For Ovia, with 5.08 billion Zenith shares and a naira that has moved in his favour, that compounding effect has been considerable.