Banks’ credit assets hit N19.5tn as NPLs decline

Three-month electronic payment was N319.995tn

The total credit by Nigeria’s banks rose to N19.46 trillion as of September this year, the latest industry data has revealed.

At the end of quarter two of the year, the credit asset of the banks stood at N18.9 trillion, increasing by N560 billion from July to September to reach the current figure. At the beginning of quarter two, it was 18.56 trillion.

Out of the figure, N15.13 trillion (translating to 78 per cent) was granted in Lagos State.

This does not mean, however, that the entire bulk went to the Lagos market as some companies operating elsewhere might have processed credit in the state.

Credit to industries and customers in Rivers stood at N861.72 billion while those in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) got N594.02 billion to emerge second and third location respectively with the highest chunk of the credit.

However, credit to customers in Katsina State increased 170.13 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to lead states with the steepest improvement. It was followed by Zamfara with a 159.50 per cent YoY growth.

On an industry basis, the banks are exposed to oil and gas to the tune of 3.74 trillion. The total credit to manufacturing stood at N3.03 trillion, making it the second sector with the largest share of bank credit.

“In terms of credit to the private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the bank stood at N19.87trillion as of Q3 2020. Oil and gas and manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.74 trillion and N3.03 trillion to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review,” the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

Contrary to the fear that COVID-19 could trigger widespread default in repayment, the non-performing loan (NPL) actually fell from N1.21 trillion to N1.17 in Q3. It increased from N1.19 trillion in Q1 2020 to settle at N1.21 trillion in the previous quarter.

The data put the value of the total electronic payments executed between July and September this year at N319.995 trillion while the volume of transactions, executed in different parts of the country, was summed up to 2.8 billion.