Lending to Private Sector Falls by N600billion in Nigeria Between 2017 and 2018
Recovery of Nigeria's economy has been peg at a total shift to none-oil sectors but the financial institutions have not joined this specific business module. A recent report shows that the total loans granted by Nigerian banks to the private sector declined by N600.60bn, from N16 trillion in the first quarter of 2017 to N15.34 trillion, in the second quarter of 2018. According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Selected Banking Sector Data: Sectorial Breakdown of Credit, ePayment Channels and Staff Strength (Q2 2018), recently released, revealed that credit to the private sector declined for six consecutive quarters. A breakdown of the total N63.27 trillion credit provided in 2017 by banks to finance activities of the private sector shows that N16 trillion was provided in the first quarter. The second, third and fourth quarters had N15.7 trillion, N15.83 trillion and N15.74 trillion, respectively. According to the report, banks lent N15.6 tril...