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The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted a regional commercial banking licence to SunTrust Bank Nigeria Limited.

The new licence raises the number of commercial banks in Nigeria to 22. (Nigeria has three merchant banks, FSDH Merchant Bank, Rand Merchant and Kakawa Discount House.)

The CBN gave its final approval to SunTrust Bank on September 17, one year and two months after application, according to Muhammad Jibrin Barde, the Managing Director/CEO of SunTrust Bank.

"This is indeed a remarkable feat as ours is the only fresh licence to be issued by the CBN since 2001,” Barde said. “Our journey as a bank since 2009 details the courageous decisions and heroic self-sacrifice of all the people that made SunTrust assent possible.”

A regional bank must have a share capital of at least N10 billion and operate within a minimum of six states and a maximum of 12 states in two geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

SunTrust Bank will be officially unveiled to the public in the first quarter of 2016, Barde said.

Barde is also the Managing Director/CEO of SunTrust Savings and Loans Limited, a mortgage bank, which began operations in 2009.

Chibuike Oguh is Financial Nigeria's Frontier Markets Analyst