Banks post non-performing loans worth N1.05tn in 2019

Nigerian banks recorded total Non-Performing Loans (NPL) of N1.05 trillion at Full Year 2019 compared to the N1.79 trillion posted in the corresponding period of 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday.

The 2019 figure represented 6.03% of the entire credit facilities booked by the bank in the year under review, which was N17.563 trillion.

Banks’ loan portfolio stood at N15.54 trillion at first quarter 2019 during which bad loans totalled N1.67 trillion.

It declined to N15.48 trillion at Q2 2019 when the bad loan figure dropped to N1.44 trillion.

Read also: Fuel subsidy gulped N722.3bn of govt’s spending in 2018 – NEITI

However, the total loan balance on banks’ balance sheets rose to N16.62 trillion at Q3 with the NPL declining further to N1.1 trillion.

Banks’ total lending grew to N17.56 trillion in the last quarter of last year at a time when their bad loan burden eased to N1.05 trillion.

Lending to oil and gas, and manufacturing were the biggest in the private sector with the former accounting for 19.88% of total credit while the former was responsible for 15.26%.

Mining, which pundits say is capable of generating $60 billion (about N22.020 trillion) for Nigeria annually, received the least credit support from Nigeria in 2019, with 0.07% or private sector loans availed to it by banks.

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