Nigeria, Oct. 10 -- Zenith Bank logged a 19.1 per cent slide in net profit for the first half of 2026, relative to a year ago, its latest audited earnings report showed.

This marks the second time in a row that the big lender would report a profit drop at the half-year period.

Apart from a contraction in revenue, which set the bank up for a fall in earnings, cost pressures also played a part in weakening the bottom line.

Post-tax profit for the financial institution declined to N430.8 billion from N532.2 billion in the same period of last year as earnings directly took a hit from a surging tax bill, which saw taxation more than double to N206.8 billion from N93.4 billion.

In the first six months of last year, Zenith Bank's after-tax p...