Nigerian banks’ credit to economy hits N19.87tn in Q3

The total amount of loans advanced by Nigerian banks to the economy rose by 5.58 percent to N19.87 trillion in the third quarter of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics has said.

The NBS, in a new report released on Saturday, said the oil and gas sector got the largest credit of N3.74tn from the banks in the period under review.

It was followed by the manufacturing sector, which got credit allocation of N3.03tn.

The statistics office said, “Geographical distribution of credit by state stood at N19.46 trillion compared to N18.90 trillion in Q2 2020 and N16.62 trillion in Q3 2019.

“This represents 2.96 percent increase in credit quarter on quarter and 17.11 percent year on year.”

According to the report, Lagos State recorded the highest credit by geographical distribution with N15.13 trillion, accounting for 77.74 percent of the total credit while Yobe State recorded the least with N19.38bn, accounting for 0.09 percent

It said, “A total volume of 2,781,526,188 transactions valued at N319.99 trillion was recorded in Q3 2020 as data on electronic payment channels in the Nigeria banking sector revealed.

“RTGS transfers dominated the volume of transactions recorded. 1,799,199 volume of online transfer transactions valued at N116.06 trillion were recorded in Q3 2020.”

The NBS said the total number of deposit money banks’ staff increased by 1.47 percent from 94,498 in Q2 to 95,888 in Q3.