COVID-19: Banks increase loans to customers in H1

Amid the COVID-19 lockdown, the members of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have revealed that commercial banks in Nigeria increased loans to customers in the first half-year ended June 30, 2020.

“The performance of the LDR policy which was introduced in July 2019 showed that total credits increased by N3.1 trillion or 20.45 percent, with manufacturing, retail & consumer loans, general commerce, and agriculture as major beneficiaries,” it revealed.

According to findings, most Tier-1 commercial banks improved on loans to customers with Zenith Bank Plc granting customers N318.8billion loans in the first half of 2020 while the United Bank for Africa Plc disbursed N125.22 billion as loans to its customers in the period under review.

GTBank in the period under review granted N122.5billion loans and advances to customers, as a result, 16.7 percent and 3.3 percent increases recorded on the local currency (LCY) and Foreign currency (FCY) loan Book due to net disbursement of N92.6 billion and N26.7 billion in LCY and FCY Gross Loans respectively.

A further breakdown revealed that FBN Holdings granted N141.86billion in H1 2020 as Access Bank Plc granted N88.9billion to customers in the period under review.

A check at Tier-2 commercial banks showed that Fidelity bank plc and FCMB Group granted N82 billion and N78.93billion as loans & advances to customers in the first half of 2020.

Wema bank granted N48billion, while Union Bank of Nigeria Plc and Stanbic IBTC Holdings plc disbursed N44.3 billion to as loans & advances in the first half of 2020.

Also, loans & advances of Union Bank of Nigeria moved from N550.81billion in the financial year ended December 31, 2019, to N581.66billion as of June 30, 2019, an increase of N31.05billion.