Less than 2% of Nigerians get credit from banks- NBS

While government borrowing has significantly increased in the last three years, it appears the number of Nigerians getting loans from the banking sector have reduced considerably, National Daily investigation has shown.

According to recent data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), less than 2% of Nigerians including businesses actually accessed credit from the banking sector.

National Daily gathered that a total of about 2,328,183 Nigerians are indebted to deposit money banks in Nigeria as at December 2017, suggesting a drop of 700,000 when compared to the 3 million as at December 2015.

In terms of the total amount borrowed, Nigerians currently owe the banking sector about N15.93 trillion in loans up from N13.3 trillion in 2015 and from N13.35 trillion in 2016.

Interestingly about N13.1 trillion of the total loans borrowed from the banks were lent to 3,891 customers up from N13.1 trillion, N9.3 trillion also lent to 2,247 and 2,048 customers in 2016 and 2017 respectively. These customers have a loan outstanding of about N1 billion and above.

The data also reveals that on the average customers who borrow N1 million or less borrow on an average N53.3k per person compared to N97k per person in 2016. It is also down from N88.2k per person in 2016.

This could be as a result of the massive deleveraging that occurred between 2016 and 2017 as more Nigerians paid off their loans following the recession and devaluation of the naira.

National Daily also learnt that Nigerian banks have also focussed more on lending to the public sector as risk-free debt securities offer mouth-watering yields.

With government securities such as treasury bills and government bonds attracting high-interest rates, banks’ prime lending rates have risen above 20% on the average making it difficult for more Nigerians to borrow.

Meanwhile, most Fintech companies in Nigeria have seen the huge opportunity and have positioned themselves to tap this market.

Loans range from between 2% to 15% in some cases with borrowers being able to access credit without collateral or any of their stringent requirements requested by banks.

Sectors like the housing market which are traditionally areas that create more loans for customers is still in its infancy in Nigeria as poor funding stifles housing production.