Central Bank of Nigeria Declares 23 Banks Healthy

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given a clean bill of health to 23 of the 24 money deposit banks in Nigeria, saying the banks are above 30.0 per cent industry liquidity ratio.

In the 2012 annual report released yesterday, the CBN said all the banks, except one met the stipulated minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 10.0 per cent and industry liquidity ratio at an average of 63.9 per cent against the prescribed minimum of 30.0 per cent. The affected bank was not mentioned in the report. The apex bank said the asset quality of banks, measured by the ratio of non-performing loans to industry total improved substantially as it declined to 3.47 per cent at end-December 2012 which is below the threshold of 5.0 per cent.

Speaking on the report, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the nation's economy remained resilient with a robust growth of 6.6 per cent, compared with the 7.4 per cent recorded in 2011. Sanusi attributed the development to the contraction in the growth of the oil sector occasioned by leakages in form of oil theft and production disruptions.

The non-oil sector, he said, continued its strong performance underpinned by sustained investment in power and other infrastructure, as well as supportive fiscal incentives and a modest increase in credit. He said the bank is optimistic that with sustained economic reforms particularly, the focus on infrastructure, the diversification of the economy away from oil, in line with the government's transformation agenda, as well as the consolidation of the gains of the financial sector reforms, the continued growth in the economy will be assured.

The report shows that CBN guaranteed 48,736 loans valued at N9.71 billion under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) in 2012, bringing the total loans guaranteed since the inception of the Scheme in 1978 to 803,264, valued at N62.05 billion. There was no new placement of funds under the Trust Fund Model (TFM) in 2012, leaving total contributors at 56, valued at N5.52 billion. The cumulative disbursement under the Refinancing and Restructuring Fund (RRF) remained at N235.0 billion, as there was no additional disbursement from the CBN.

Under the Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Scheme (SMECGS) 22 projects valued at N1.030 billion, were guaranteed in 2012. Thus, the cumulative projects guaranteed since the inception of the SMECGS stood at 40, valued at N1.93 trillion.

Also, N33.58 billion was released to the DMBs for disbursement to 13 projects under the Power and Airline Intervention Fund. The sum comprised N28.24 billion for 10 power projects and N5.33 billion for 3 airline projects.