Business First Bancshares Inc

To the Shareholders, Board of Directors, and Audit Committee

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Business First Bancshares, Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control– Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated March 7, 2025, expressed an opinion that the Company had not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024.

Change in Accounting Principle

As discussed in Notes 1 and 7 to the financial statements, effective January 1, 2023, the Company changed its method of accounting for credit losses due to the adoption of Accounting Standards Codification Topic 326, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits.

We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud.

Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures include examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

As described in Note 1 and Note 7 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company’s allowance for loan losses is a component of the allowance for credit losses and was $54.8 million as of December 31, 2024. The allowance for loan losses is estimated utilizing forward-looking expected loss models which consider a variety of factors affecting lifetime credit losses. Loans sharing risk characteristics are grouped into pools to estimate expected credit losses. The Company incorporates forecasted economic scenarios over a reasonable and supportable forecast period which incorporates Company and peer historical losses. Loss estimates also consider qualitative factors affecting credit losses not reflected in the model.

We identified the allowance for loan losses as a critical audit matter. The principal considerations for that determination included the high degree of judgment and subjectivity relating to assumptions used in the model, such as management’s use of qualitative factor adjustments related to economic conditions. Auditing these assumptions required a high degree of auditor effort, specialized skills and knowledge, and significant auditor judgment.

The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

◦We obtained an understanding of the Company’s model and process for determining the allowance for loan losses and evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of controls relating to the allowance for loan losses, including controls over management’s review and approval of qualitative factor adjustments related to economic conditions applied within the qualitative framework to address risks not already incorporated within the model.

◦We evaluated the reasonableness and adequacy of management’s qualitative factor adjustments related to economic conditions and the completeness and accuracy of data utilized in development of such qualitative factor adjustments.

/s/ Forvis Mazars, LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2019.

Fort Worth, Texas

March 7, 2025

To the Shareholders, Board of Directors, and Audit Committee

Opinion on the Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited Business First Bancshares Inc’s (the “Company”) internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework: (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the Company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The following material weakness has been identified and included in management’s assessment. The Company did not have effective information technology general controls (ITGCs) supporting the Company’s internal control over financial reporting related to change management segregation of duties as described in Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. This material weakness was considered in determining the nature, timing, and extent of auditing procedures applied in our audit of the Company’s consolidated financial statements, and this report does not affect our report dated March 7, 2025, on those consolidated financial statements.

In our opinion, because of the effect of the material weakness described above on the achievement of the objectives of the control criteria, Business First Bancshares, Inc. has not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework: (2013)issued by the COSO.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the consolidated financial statements of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and our report dated March 7, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.

We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

As described in Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, the scope of management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, has excluded Oakwood Bancshares, Inc. (“Oakwood’) acquired on October 1, 2024. We have also excluded Oakwood from the scope of our audit of internal control over financial reporting. Oakwood represented 11.0% percent of consolidated total assets as of December 31, 2024.

Definitions and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of reliable financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ Forvis Mazars, LLP

Fort Worth, Texas

March 7, 2025