Nigeria banks remain resilient, attain 6.8% asset growth, says Dikko

•BoI total assets falls to N1.71tr’

Despite challenges occasioned by the COVID-10 pandemic, the Nigerian banking industry has remained resilient, delivering 15.6 per cent and 6.8 per cent growth in total assets and profits respectively in the first half of 2021.

The Chairman, Board of Directors of the Bank of Industry (BoI), Aliyu Dikko stated this while declaring open the 62nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank held in Abuja, yesterday.

Dikko further said that total lending to the private sector increased by 18.5 per cent (N5.58 trillion) year-on-year to N35.73 trillion in December 2021, up from N30.15 trillion in 2020.

He said the increase in private sector lending was supported by the growth of business activities of FinTech and tech-based companies.

According to him, the FinTech ecosystem has grown significantly in recent years, delivering innovative digital financial solutions such as electronic payments, blockchain digital currency, foreign exchange and remittance transactions.

The BoI Chairman explained that in line with the bank’s strategic objective to continually support its customers through the post-COVID-19 recovery phase, the bank extended the two per cent reduction of interest rate on all its funds, as well as moratorium and tenor by another year until March 31, 2022.

Dikko said: ‘’In Nigeria, the year 2022 is critical as it precedes the 2023 elections, it is expected that increased government and political expenditure will fuel excess liquidity in the system, which may adversely impact the inflation rate. In the same vein, the lingering global supply shortage may also impact inflation by weighing on the supply of imported raw materials, thereby affecting output levels.

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF)has revised upward its growth forecast for the Nigerian economy in 2022 to 3.4 per cent from its earlier projection of 2.7 per cent, citing increasing oil prices as a key factor. Growth is expected from the financial services sectors, manufacturing, trade and construction, travel, entertainment and hospitality subsectors.”

Reviewing BoI financial performance, the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry, Olukayode Pitan, said: ‘’Total assets reduced from N1.86 trillion in 2020 to N1.71 trillion in the year under review, the 8.2 per cent decline was as a result of the reduction in debt securities and cash balance at the CBN as payments of our syndicated loans continued.

“Loan and advance improved by 4.1 per cent to N779.3 billion from N748.96 billion in 2020 due to the increased interventions and support to enterprises. Total equity also grew by 14.2 per cent to N382.52 billion from N334.96 billion in 2021.”