By the end of February 2023, the total assets of the Nigerian banking sector had increased by 25.12% over the previous year to N77.59 trillion. This information was provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria in a personal statement given by Aishah Ahmad, Deputy Governor of the Financial System Stability Directorate of the CBN, at the most recent meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee.
She said, “Key industry aggregates also continued year-on-year upward trajectory with total assets rising by 25.12 per cent to N77.59tn in February 2023 from N62.01tn in February 2022, while total deposits rose to N49.36tn from N39.38tn over the same period.
“Industry credit also increased by N4.98tn between end-February 2022 and end-February 2023, with significant growth in credit to manufacturing, general commerce, and the oil & gas sub-sectors. Notably, this impressive increase was achieved with continued decline in non-performing loans ratio.”
She claims that in February 2023, the capital adequacy and liquidity ratios were good at 13.70 and 43.10 percent each, while the non-performing loans ratio was lower than the prudential target of 5.0 percent at 4.2%.
Despite the solid financial system fundamentals and positive stress test results, she added, the Bank must be attentive and aggressively manage new threats to the stability of the financial system. This is particularly important given the difficult global economic and financial climate.
She said, “The optimism of continued positive output growth was further buttressed by sustained stability of the financial system, despite heightening global headwinds and domestic vulnerabilities.
“A comprehensive review and stress testing of the Nigerian banking system by Bank’s staff, to assess the impact of continued rate hikes by the MPC, recent bank failures in the US and Switzerland, and other idiosyncratic risks, shows robustness of the financial system.
