Nigerian banks granted a total of N23.53 trillion credits to the economy as of the end of March 2021, compared with N22.68 trillion at the end of December 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.
The gross credit rose 3.74 percent quarter on quarter as the regulatory bank’s policy on loan-to-deposit-ratio continues to influence the increase in credit to the economy.
The CBN said total credit disbursement by banks in the first three months of the year stood at N0.85 trillion, of which commercial and merchant banks disbursed (N0.66 trillion), microfinance banks (N0.13 trillion), development finance institutions (N0.05 trillion), and primary mortgage banks and finance companies (N0.01 trillion).
The CBN also said that the Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) of the banking sector declined to 5.89 percent in April 2021, compared with 6.6 percent in the corresponding period of last year.
“The MPC, however, urged the Bank to sustain its tight prudential regime to further reduce the level of Non-Performing Loans in the industry,” the CBN said in its communique at the end of MPC meeting on Tuesday.
It, however, said that the NPLs remained marginally above the Bank’s regulatory
threshold and this was in line with the current state of macroeconomic imbalances occasioned by the Pandemic.
