Adaora Umeoji has been rated Nigeria’s highest paid bank CEO .
This is according to a recent Data obtained from listed Nigerian banks on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) where Zenith Bank and few other banks were surveyed.
The pay list shows how banks encourage competitive staff compensation, especially to their chief executives, who are in charge of pivoting the organisation to success.
Some of the banks surveyed alongside Zenith Bank include Access Holdings Plc,, First Holdco Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), United Bank for Africa (UBA), FCMB Group, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Wema Bank, and Fidelity Bank.
These nine banks paid their CEOs an aggregate salary of N2.63 trillion.
Among the Bank ceos,Adaora Umeoji of Zenith Bank earned the highest. Her earnings stood at N874 million in 2024, a 59 percent decline from N2.16 Billion that was paid to the former CEO in 2023.
But this is quite big compared to what other Bank CEOs earned during the year under review.

Segun Agbaje of GTCO earned,471 million naira, while Ladi Balogun of FCMB earned 329 million naira. Oliver Alawuba of UBA earned 254 naira,followed by his Stanbic IBTC counterpart Kunle Adedeji earned 215 Million Naira. Access Bank CEO,Agbede earned 180 Million Naira and was trailed by Fidelity Bank CEO Nneka Onyeali-Ikpeh who earns 110 million naira while Wema Bank and First Bank CEOs earned 106 million naira and 97 Million Naira respectively.
Adaora Umeoji made history in 2024 by becoming the first woman to lead Zenith Bank as its Group Managing Director and CEO, effective June 1, 2024.
Umeoji holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Jos, a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, and a First-Class honors in Law from Baze University, Abuja.
She also has a Master of Laws from the University of Salford, United Kingdom, a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Calabar, and has a doctorate in business administration from Apollos University, USA.
She holds a Certificate in Economics for Business from the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management, USA, and has attended various management programmes in renowned Universities around the world, including the strategic thinking and Management programme at Wharton Business School, USA.