Zenith, UBA, others expand loan books by N690bn

Zenith Bank, UBA, FBN and nine other commercial banks in the country have expanded their loan portfolio by N690bn in the first three months of 2021, according to their unaudited financial statements.

The loans and advances to their customers grew to N17.75tn as of March 31, 2021 from N17.06tn at the end of December last year.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria had in July 2019 mandated all Deposit Money Banks to maintain a minimum loan-to-deposit ratio of 60 per cent by September 30, 2019 in a bid to improve lending to the real sector.

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Access Bank Plc expanded its loan book to N3.26tn at the end of March 2021 from N3.22tn in December 2020 while that of Zenith Bank Plc grew to N2.84tn from N2.78tn.

The United Bank for Africa Plc increased its loans and advances to customers to N2.73tn as of March 31 from N2.55tn in December 2020.

FBN Holdings Plc, the holding company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, grew its loan book to N2.30tn at the end of March from N2.22tn in December while that of Guaranty Trust Bank shrank to N1.64tn from N1.66tn.

Fidelity Bank Plc expanded its loan book to N1.43tn at the end of the first quarter of this year from N1.33tn in December while that of FCMB Group Plc grew to N886.09bn from N822.77bn.

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The loan portfolio of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc rose to N730.14bn as of March 31 from N625.14bn in December while that of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc increased to N712.58bn from N692.80bn.

Sterling Bank Plc increased its loans and advances to customers to N632.48bn in March from N596.83bn in December.

Wema Bank of Nigeria grew its loan book to N367.69bn in March from N360.08bn in December while that of Unity Bank Plc expanded to N223.22bn from N202.08bn.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN said in March that provisional data showed that banking system credit to the economy increased by 1.75 per cent to N43.67tn in February 2021 from N42.92tn in January 2021, reflecting the ongoing broad-based monetary and fiscal stimulus to various sectors of the economy.

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Meanwhile, the CBN has debited banks a total of N120.2 billion in CRR debits according to information sourced from the apex bank website.

Zenith Bank topped the list with about N39 billion debited followed by Citi Bank and UBA with N16 billion and N12 billion respectively. A total of 15 banks had their CRR debited out of the 28 banks currently listed by the CBN as commercial and merchant banks.

Recently, the CBN introduced zero-coupon Special Bills which are issued to banks in exchange for the CRR debits.

Critics of the CBN’s CRR debits suggest the money is used to fund the apex bank’s intervention programs in the economy as well as fund the government’s revenue shortfall via Ways and Means.

Banks, on the other hand, complain that the CRR debits have affected interest margins as they will rather have their vaults debited than increase their risk profiles.