FRI, NOVEMBER 30 2018-theG&BJournal-Banking sector credit to the private sector shot up to N15.59trn in Q3 2018 from N15.34 trillion recorded in the second quarter 2018 to suggest an up-tick in economic activities in the quarter.
According to latest sector report published yesterday in Abuja by the National Bureau of Statistics (NB), the Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.59trn and N2.15trn respectively to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review. This topped the N3.45 trillion and N2.02 trillion for both sectors in Q2 2018 also.
However, lending to the Power and Energy sector lagged despite huge deficits in the sector and the epilepsy that characterises it. It received a paltry N325,687.85 billion or 2.09% of total credit. The transport sector also got less attention from banks credit. A total of N311,463.92 or 2.00% of total credit went to the sector.
Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions dominated the volume of transactions recorded. 220,270,371 volume of ATM transactions valued at N1,593bln were recorded in Q3 2018 which is also an increase compared to 217,417,961 in volume and N1.603 billion in value recorded in Q22018.
POS usage went up exponentially in Q32018 to N650,406,589,833 with transactions totalling 86,038,267. The volume of transactions on online payments totalled 13,965,044 and N69,071,510,393 in value. The volume of transactions also in mobile payment showed upward movement at 23,918,468 and N496,372,116,561 in value.
The report showed that Trade and general commerce received N1,073,709.56 or 6.89% of total allocation while lending to public sector N1,401,668.65 or 8.99% of total credit. Credit to Finance, Insurance and capital markets stood N1,056,045.36 which is 6.77% of total credit in Q32018.
Private Sector Deposits at Central Bank of Nigeria Provisional fell in Q32018 to N2,756,214.1 from N2,878,219.4 recorded at as August 2018. While Private Sector Deposits at Commercial Banks also saw fluctuations. As at July (July-18) it stood at N6,239,070.7. Fell in (Aug-18) to N5,999,206.8 and by September 2018 it went up N6,296,863.9.
The up-tick in activity reflected broadly in hiring in the banking sector. The report shows that as at Q3, 2018, the total number of banks staffs increased by 0.95% QoQ from 101,861 in Q2 2018 to 102,821.
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