Banking System Remains Resilient – CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed in its statements on monetary policies that as at the end of 2022 the banking system has continued to be resilient with major financial soundness.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele noted that there was noticeable growth caused by the substantial overshoot of domestic claims above programmed benchmark which reflects the sustained growth of banking system credits to the private sector, consistent with the CBN policy to finance high-impact sectors.

He said, “Despite rising private sector credits and elevated uncertainties, the banking system remained resilient and stable as NPL ratio (4.81 per cent), liquidity ratio (40.14 per cent) and CAR (13.39 per cent), outperformed their prudential limits. In order to insulate our economy from adverse external developments, it remains imperative to fortify our economic base by de-risking the productive sector and diversifying completely.

“This is especially as frozen oil receipt impedes the FX market, shrinking external reserves from $37.39bn in September to $36.87bn in October, and abetting exchange rate pressures.”

A member of the MPC, Adeola Adenikinju, said the various Financial Soundness Indicators showed that the banking systems remained safe, sound, and resilient.

“All the FSIs were within the prudential requirements and compared well with comparator countries.

“All measures of industry aggregates: assets, deposits and credit rose year on year. Total assets of the banking industry grew by N12.37tn between end-October 2021 and 2022.

“Similarly, industry credit increased by N5.32tn over the same period. In addition, total industry deposits rose by N6.92tn between end-October 2021 and 2022. In October 2022, a total of 125,305 new credits valued at N767.06bn were granted to various customers. There was marginal increase in lending rates in the industry in response to recent measures by the CBN.”