Ecobank and six other Nigerian banks provided credit support of N14.63 trillion to its customers in 2021, a 13% increase from the N12.96 trillion reported in the entire year of 2020.
According to the unaudited financial records of the seven Tier-2 banks for the year ending December 31, 2021, assistance grew by N1. 67 trillion year on year in 2021.
The commercial banks are; Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Wema Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Unity Bank Plc and Sterling Bank Plc.
Credit from the seven banks was in addition to the over N3 trillion intervention loans disbursed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to boost economic recovery and generate employment opportunities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Businesses were left in bad shape by the pandemic and in need of fresh credit to ginger their operations.
A breakdown showed that Ecobank disbursed the biggest loans to customers in 2021 as the pan-African Bank released a total of N9.58 trillion on loan facilities to its customers, up 3.8 per cent from N9.23 trillion in 2020.
Fidelity Bank came in second with N1.65 trillion loans to customers in 2021, representing a 25.1 per cent rise from the N1.32 trillion it disbursed in December 2020, while FCMB saw its loans to customers jump 29.3 per cent to N1.06 trillion in 2021 from N822.77 billion the previous year.
Further analysis showed Stanbic IBTC’s Holdings grew its loans by 47.3 per cent to N921.04 billion in 2021 up from N625.13 billion reported in 2020, while Sterling Bank loans to customers currently stand at N716.71 billion, up 20.1 per cent from N596.82 billion the bank released in 2020.
Wema bank, an old generation financial institution posted N418.17 billion Loan advance to customers under the period in review, indicating a 16.1 per cent rise from N360.07 billion the full year 2020, while Unity Bank reported the least figure, supporting customers with N268.28 billion in 2021 from N202.08 billion of 2020, representing a 32.8 per cent appreciation.
Recall that in June 2019, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a new policy measure, which mandated Deposit Money Banks to maintain a minimum of 60 per cent Loan to Deposit Ratio.
According to the apex bank, the objective was to boost the economy by making credit available to the real sector of the economy.
Following this mandate, the Nigerian banking sector recorded the most credit growth of the real sector of the economy in almost five years, hitting N17.1 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2019.
In light of this growth, the CBN in October 2019 further increased the LDR of banks to 65 per cent, after the September 30 deadline given to the banks to meet the 60 per cent LDR directive.
Meanwhile, the CBN also disbursed over N3 trillion in intervention loans to cushion the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and boost economic recovery and also generate employment opportunities.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said the N3 trillion credits were given through the DMBs and other participating financial institutions has granted in intervention loans, citing N948 billion the Anchor Borrowers Programme disbursements to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers as one. The fund was to cultivate 5.2 million hectares of farmland across the country, thereby creating 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
Another is the Targeted Credit Facility under which the apex bank disbursed N368.79 to 778,000 benefiting households and businesses that suffered significant losses during the pandemic. The beneficiaries comprise 648,052 households and about 130,000 SMEs.
“We have also disbursed N1.452 trillion to 337 Large real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining under our Real Sector Support Facility, says Godwin Emefiele who also stated that 122 major healthcare projects were funded with N115.36 billion.
“These healthcare interventions went to 31 pharmaceutical and 91 hospital projects. This intervention helped to support the acquisition of 59 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners, 42 Computer Tomography (CT) scanners, and 4 Oncology screening machines.”
The CBN-funded support also covered disbursement to support small and medium enterprises in the agribusiness sector through the Agric, Small and Medium Enterprise Scheme (AGSMEIS).
“A total of N134.63 billion has been released to 37,571 SME projects of which 67 per cent were directly in agriculture-related projects, 22.5 per cent were in services, while the balance was in fashion, IT, and related sub-sectors,” Mr Emefiele said of AGSMEIS.
“Under the Nigeria Electricity Stabilization Facility, a total of N229 billion has been disbursed to 9 DisCos to help cover their financial obligations to upstream market participants. These interventions have helped to significantly improve liquidity in their ecosystem and increase electricity generation from 4,000 MW in 2020 to over 5,000 MW as of September 2021.
“The Bank has also released N47.83 billion to 10 DisCos under the National Mass Metering Programme for the procurement of 858,026 electricity meters. Because of these disbursements, the revenue collection for DisCos increased significantly to over N69 billion as of December 2021.”
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
