Nigerian Banks resilient amid pressure—CBN

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says Nigeria’s Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) are satisfactorily resilient amid both external and internal pressures. Mr Yemi Cardoso, the Governor of the CBN, said this on Tuesday in Abuja while presenting a communiqué issued at the end of the 298th meeting of the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). According to Cardoso, members of the MPC noted with satisfaction the continued resilience and stability of the banking system in spite of significant exogenous and endogenous headwinds. “Key financial soundness indicators such as the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), Non Performing Loan ratio (NPL), and Liquidity Ratio (LR), amongst others, remain strong,” he said.
He, however, said that the CBN would maintain its close surveillance on the banking system to sustain compliance with regulatory thresholds and continued health of the industry. He said that the MPC acknowledged the efforts of the CBN in deepening financial inclusion towards improving the transmission mechanism of monetary policy to enhance policy effectiveness. Cardoso said that the MPC members were focused on the optimal policy choice to address the uptrend in price development, stabilise the exchange rate, and anchor inflation expectations appropriately. According to him, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that headline inflation (year-on-year) rose to 33.88 per cent in October, from 32.70 per cent in September.
“On a month-on-month basis, it also rose to 2.64 per cent in October, from 2.52 per cent in the previous month. Both the food and core components contributed to the continued rise in headline inflation. Food inflation rose further to 39.16 per cent in October, from 37.77 per cent in September, while core inflation also rose to 28.37 per cent in October, from 27.43 per cent in September. The MPC, however, noted the moderation in the prices of farm produce and commended the efforts of the Federal Government in driving increased productivity in the agricultural sector,” he said. He said that the recovery of output growth was sustained, with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (year-on-year) growing by 3.46 per cent in the third quarter of 2024.
The growth is driven by both the oil and non-oil sectors, with a notable contribution from the services sector. The non-oil sector grew by 3.37 percent in the third quarter compared with 2.80 per cent in the second quarter. “The oil sector grew by 5.17 per cent (year-on-year), compared with 10.15 percent in the preceding quarter” he said. He said that the external reserves rose marginally to 40.88 billion dollars as at Nov. 21 from 40.06 billion dollars at the end of October. According to Cardoso, the external reserves are available to finance 17 months of imports.