Business

Bank Customers Borrowed N947bn Amid Naira Scarcity

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Staff Admin

By Sami Tunji

Deposit Money Banks offered 130,854 new credits valued at N947.46bn to their customers in December 2022, according to a document by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

A member of the MPC, Adeola Adenikinju, disclosed this in his personal statement made at the last meeting of the committee.

He also disclosed that the banking industry assets rose by N14.36tn, while industry credit rose by N5.14tn in 2022.

Adenikinju said, “All measures of industry aggregates: assets, deposits and credit rose year-on-year. Total assets of the banking industry grew by N14.36tn between the end of December 2021 and 2022. Similarly, industry credit increased by N5.14tn over the same period.

“In addition, total industry deposits rose by N7.08tn between end-December 2021 and 2022. In December 2022, a total of 130,854 new credits valued at N947.46bn were granted to various customers.”

The MPC member also disclosed that there was an increase in the maximum lending rate from 28.14 per cent to 29.13 per cent.

“Interest rate spread month-on-month widened to 23.42 per cent in December 2022, as maximum lending rate increased from 28.14 per cent to 29.13 per cent and average savings rate rose from 3.93 per cent to 4.13 per cent between November and December 2022, respectively,” Adenikinju added.

This occurred amid the naira redesign policy of the CBN, which led to naira scarcity for many Nigerians.

In December last year, the amount of currency outside banks was about N2.57tn.

The PUNCH learnt that this amount crashed to N788.92bn in January 2023, according to the latest data from the Money and Credit Statistics on the website of the CBN.

According to the available data, this was a decrease of 69.26 per cent between December 2022 and January 2023.

This also meant that the CBN retrieved N1.78tn from the money outside banks.

The data also put currency in circulation at N1.39tn in January 2023 from N3.01tn in December, showing a difference of N1.62tn or 53.82 per cent.

This came as a biting shortage of new naira notes and an acute scarcity of old currency, which combined to inflict untold hardship and pain on millions of Nigerians, leaving several people stranded.

The PUNCH recently reported that the total assets of the banking industry grew by N14.36tn or 24.24 per cent from N59.24tn at the end of December 2021 to N73.59tn in the corresponding period of 2022.

Source: The Punch

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