Nigeria's banks just raised N4.6 trillion. A bigger capital base is not the same as a banking system that works for everyone.

Today is the deadline. According to the CBN, 32 banks have met the recapitalisation requirements ahead of today's cutoff. Three remain under regulatory intervention with no clear timeline. Polaris, Keystone, and Union Bank. Nigeria just completed its most significant banking restructuring since 2004.

In 2004, the CBN raised capital thresholds and 89 banks became 25. The logic was the same as today's. Stronger capital bases, more resilient institutions, banks capable of funding the kind of big projects a growing economy needs. The sector raised N4.61 trillion for this round, according to CBN-linked reporting, with approximately 27% coming from foreign investors.

That foreign capital figure matters. Nigerian banks went abroad to raise money to meet a Nigerian regulatory requirement. Simultaneously, as this week's Wigwe investigation shows, Nigerian banking executives had been quietly parking personal wealth in London. That's not a contradiction. It's the same logic operating at two different levels. Capital goes where the conditions are right.

Here's what the headline number misses. Think of the fabric trader in Alaba market who tried to get a working capital loan last year. The bank required collateral worth twice the loan value. She didn't have it. She borrowed from a cooperative at 8% monthly instead. The bank that turned her down just finished raising hundreds of billions in fresh capital. It still has the same credit policies.

A recapitalised bank has more money. It doesn't automatically have better appetite for the small business that needs N5 million without collateral. The 2004 consolidation produced larger institutions. It didn't produce cheaper credit for traders in Kano or Aba. Interest rates after 2004 didn't fall. They moved with monetary policy, as they always do.

CBN Governor Cardoso said the sector is now positioned to support Nigeria's $1 trillion economy ambition. That's the institutional claim. The personal translation is harder to find in the press releases.

What does a stronger banking sector mean for the person who still can't get a loan at a rate they can actually repay? The answer to that question won't arrive today. It'll arrive quietly, in the lending data two years from now, when the press releases have moved on.