Size matters.
Yes, size really, truly matters. But it depends on what is the size you are talking about. It depends on your understanding of what size represents.
For many people reading this, the size that is on their mind is the phallic type: how large is the organ; how many hours do you stay before your staying power evaporates?
But that is not what we are talking about here. If you like, have a phallic endowment as large as that of a horse; once the size of your dream is small, you will sooner become history. With your name attached to nothing of substance, the bevy courting your adulation and patronage would sooner make a beeline to the person across the room with demonstrable big dreams that are deemed capable of changing lives and shifting the order of the world.
When people talk about size, make no mistake, they are talking about the size of your imagination and how much you can translate dreams into tangible reality that can be bought and sold. It is the size of your dream and your vision that the world cares about. Once your dream is small, people would soon disappear from your circles because you would be found not to inspire; you have to be a creator of value to be seen as big.
Jim Ovia does not possess impressive physical size. He is not big and does not command such an immense presence. Only on very few occasions have people seen his full-length photographs. Perhaps conscious of his physical inadequacies, he and his minders intentionally avoided photographing him in ways that showed his full physical appearance.
But what he lacked in physical appearance, he made up for in the large dreams and visions that formed the DNA of his business – banking. Jim dreamt of building a bank that was going to end all banks – the zenith of banking in Nigeria.
Zenith Bank Plc was established in May 1990 and commenced operations in July of the same year as a commercial bank. The Bank became a public limited company on 17 June 2004 and was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on 21 October 2004, following a highly successful Initial Public Offering (IPO). Zenith Bank Plc currently has a shareholder base of more than half a million and is Nigeria’s biggest bank by tier-1 capital. In 2013, the Bank listed $850 million worth of its shares at $6.80 each on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, Zenith Bank Plc has over 500 branches and business offices in prime commercial centres in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). In March 2007, Zenith Bank was licensed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the United Kingdom to establish Zenith Bank (UK) Limited as the United Kingdom subsidiary of Zenith Bank Plc.
Other operational subsidiaries set up over the years are Zenith Bank (Ghana) Limited, Zenith Bank (Sierra Leone) Limited, Zenith Bank (The Gambia) Limited and the Bank’s representative offices in the United Arab Emirates and the People’s Republic of China. In 2024, the Bank commissioned Zenith Bank Paris, France, after receiving approval from the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR). The Bank plans to take the Zenith brand to many other African countries, as well as the European and Asian markets.
Zenith Bank Plc, founded by Jim Ovia CFR in 1990, has since grown astronomically to become one of the leading financial institutions in Africa. It ranks as the 10th biggest bank in the continent.
The story of Zenith Bank is not always that straightforward. Depending on whom you are speaking with, the story could get twisted at certain points. A deep search on Google would reveal stories that suggest duplicity in the bank’s foundations. Some stories suggest the bank was originally founded by the founder and leader of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Godfrey Itse Mene Otubu, and three other directors, one of whom is an unnamed rubber merchant from Benin.
A controversial book, The Godfather of Banking, written by one Andy Briggs, had said in the book that Ovia was invited by the named founding father, Otubu, to be the Managing Director, after obtaining the license with his connection as a former director in the Federal Ministry of Defence.
Ovia was then a mid-level employee at the moribund Merchant Bank of Africa. Those in this school allege that things began to change when the founder, known popularly as Baba Aladura, died in 2004, and with records not quite tidy, it gave Jim Ovia the window to take over the bank, at the expense of both the founder and the three other directors.
Andy Briggs, the author of the book, never got the chance to release his book in Nigeria because Ovia allegedly frustrated his efforts via litigation, in which he alleged violation of his privacy rights. But Briggs was able to release the book outside of Nigeria, enabling interested Nigerians to get copies ordered from abroad.
One story, put together by Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu in November 2018, pointed out that Jim also had brushes with the law in his journey to the top of the Nigerian banking pyramid. According to the story, published on Facebook, ‘a bank account had been opened without a photograph at a Port Harcourt branch of Zenith Bank, bearing the fictitious name Harrison Da Princewill. Within months of operating, the account had received an impressive haul of over N4 billion. The Nuhu Ribadu-led EFCC linked the account to one Nyesom Wike, then chief of staff of the Rivers State government, and a money-laundering case was established. Ovia was later arrested in this connection. His detention at the EFCC office was being perfected when Michael Aondakaa, then Attorney-General of the Federation, intervened, and he was let go. But three Zenith Bank staffers who allegedly colluded with Nyesom Wike to operate the account became the scapegoats, writes Andy Briggs. The case, now totally forgotten, died a slow natural death’.
This, and another earlier case said to have involved monies brought in by former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, were rumoured to have also marred the beautiful rags-to-riches story of Jim Ovia in the Nigerian banking landscape.
But these are in no official records. Nyesom Wike is today the Federal Minister of the Federal Capital, and Otubu is not alive to establish any proof of his involvement in the founding of the bank.
Thus, Jim Ovia soldiered on with his singular vision to build a big bank founded on the use of technology to deliver excellent service to Nigeria and Africa.
Jim did not pretend to be building a bank for all comers. His vision, which he mostly accomplished, was to build a bank for the deep pockets. Back in the days, Jim’s dream Zenith Bank was not one where kobos and pennies would be flooding the banking halls, struggling for space, and all manner of people would be filling deposit slips to drop one or two naira into savings accounts. Minimum opening balance was kept steep, ensuring that traffic was open for only deep pockets.
Such standards have mostly been maintained to date, even though minimum entry deposits have been mostly democratized.
Zenith was crafted to appear aristocratic. The design of the branch buildings was psychologically made to discourage ordinary depositors from making an entry. The front glass panelling of the buildings gives the bank the impression of exclusivity, creating a trail of serious banking customers and dissuading the general public from deciding to enter without being physically gated out.
When one looks at the original head office building, the impression is a long monolithic building designed for serious bankers. But on close examination, one would discover that the head office was a series of buildings either owned or rented by the bank and unified by the glass cladding that created the illusion of a single building, even when they were several different houses with several different landlords.
Before the main head office building was bought and constructed, Zenith Bank operated its head office from different houses owned by different people, many of whom, reports said, refused to sell to the bank.
But these little matters did not deter the determined diminutive giant. When purchase and assumption, mostly termed mergers, were the vogue between 2006 to 2010, Zenith stayed away, building with its own traditional DNA and rising organically as the years passed. The bank also pretended it was not crazy about expansion into Africa. Yes, it was outposts in some African countries, Europe and America today, but it was never bullish like its closest competition.
Today, the bank is one of the most profitable in the country. In 2026, for instance, the last year which had Ovia as Chairman, it posted N1.26 trillion profit (before tax), returning as one of the most profitable banks in Nigeria for the year. First quarter 2026 profit stood at an impressive N360 billion, suggesting that the full year result was going to beat the N1.4 trillion mark at the very least.
No one can say what would have become of the bank had it had the men listed as the founders on its board. That is assuming the story was as the talebearers said it. The whole dream was as dreamt by Jim Ovia himself, and he was lucky to see it to fruition without dilution by any other person.
When ex-CBN Governor, Emir Lamido Sanusi, stopped managing directors of banks who had attained 10 years on the saddle from continuing in office, many thought the influence of Ovia on the bank had paled, until another window arrived to pave the way for them to return as Chairmen.
As Chairman of the Zenith Bank board, Jim sustained his focused creation of a bank anchored on the values of technology and service to the deep pockets. He initially handed over to his townsman, Godwin Emefiele, as Managing Director, but later, as rumours said, he also influenced the rise of the MD of his bank to the exalted office of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor. Emefiele was succeeded by Peter Amangbo, said to be a relative of Ovia.
Amangbo was replaced in 2025 by Mrs. Adaora Umeoji, who is well known as one of the fastest-rising bankers in Nigeria.
The Ovia regime at Zenith Bank has produced excellent homegrown talent, selecting all its managing directors from within its ranks, thus retaining the culture laid down by the founding father.
Jim Ovia has retired after a successful term as Chairman of the bank. He will mostly be remembered for building a bank that is excellent in service delivery. Many people would not remember the stories of Otubu or the little malfeasance that polka-dotted his journey to the top. Zenith Bank is sitting pretty as one of the biggest and most profitable banks in Nigeria and Africa.
In choosing his successor, Jim went northwards, appointing the bank’s longest serving non-executive director, Engr. Mustafa Bello as the new Chairman. Bello’s appointment was both for political balancing as well as for the retention of someone rich in both public and private sector backgrounds.
Bello was a former Minister of Commerce in Nigeria and has measurable experience in corporate leadership. In him is envisioned the dream to drive the bank’s national outlook as well as to deepen the roots in the northern part of Nigeria. He is also an insider, having served on the board of the bank since 2017.
He can be trusted to continue to drive Jim’s vision for the bank – a big vision – bigger than the man’s diminutive physical appearance.
