CBN reduces intervention loans as repayments rise by 27.4% to N264bn in half year
The Central Bank of Nigeria says it intervened in a total of 63 projects in the first half of the 2023 financial year, as 134,275 individuals and businesses benefited from its 13 intervention programmes.
The figure indicates a drastic reduction when compared with 125 and 187 projects, involving 279,211 and 134,275 individuals and businesses that benefited from its 20 and 19 programmes in the preceding and the corresponding periods of 2022, respectively.
This was contained in the CBN half year report released recently, which stressed that the pace of intervention by the apex bank during the period was limited to critical segments of the economy.
Consequently, fund disbursement declined by 35.4 per cent to N331.33 billion below N513.13 billion in the preceding half of 2022.
However, the bank said loan repayment during the period stood at N264.04 billion translating to a 27.4 percent increase compared to N207.33 billion in the same period of 2022.
“The increase in recovery reflected the drive for repayments,” the bank stated.
According to the report, a total of 125 and 187 projects, including 279,211 and 134,275 individuals and businesses that benefited from its 20 and 19 programmes in the preceding and the corresponding periods of 2022, respectively.
“Activities at the National Collateral Registry (NCR) indicated mixed performance. The number of financing statements and number of borrowers indicated that 30,327, worth N833.49 billion, was registered in respect of 31,734 borrowers during the review period, compared with 40,909, worth N1,025.61 billion, in respect of 42,695 borrowers in the second half of 2022.
“A further breakdown indicated that 48.79 percent of the financing statements were for 47.81 percent of borrowers (female and female-owned enterprises). When compared with the second half of 2022, 51.43 per cent of the financing statements were in respect of 50.57 per cent of total borrowers (female and female-owned enterprises). From the inception of the NCR in 2016 to end-June 2023, a total of 146 financial institutions had registered 319,220 financing statements valued at N17.24 trillion,” the report stated.
On revenue generation, the CBN said the non-oil sector accounted for 68.9 percent of total federation earnings during the period, stating that the improvement in non-oil revenue reflected the benefits from fiscal consolidation measures implemented under the Finance Act 2023.
Conversely, the contribution of oil continued to decline from 37.9 per cent in the first half of 2022, to 31.1 per cent in the current period.
Structural rigidities, burden of subsidy payments and low domestic crude oil production due to theft, insecurity, and under-investment in the upstream sector, contributed to the depressed performance of oil revenue, the report stated.
“Sustained growth in the economy, tax reforms, and expenditure rationalisation in Government Owned Enterprises and MDAs, drove non-oil revenue performance in the period. In nominal terms, non-oil revenue at N4, 753.18 billion (3.3 per cent of the GDP), surpassed the levels in the first half of 2022 by 38.7 per cent and the preceding half by 1.4 per cent. However, the collection fell short of the proportionate target by 17.6 per cent.
“Oil Revenue Low domestic crude oil production and subsidy deductions, majorly contributed to the decline in oil receipts in the period. Oil revenue at N2, 150.14 billion (2.0 per cent of the GDP), underperformed in relation to the proportionate budget of N4, 821.79 billion by 55.4 per cent. However, it surpassed the level in the first and second halves of 2022 by 2.6 per cent and 17.8 percent, respectively,” the report added.
NGX rebounds with N402bn gain for investors
The Nigerian Equities market experienced a bullish session on Thursday as it recovered from losses posted in the past two trading sessions.
Driven by investors’ interest in telecom giant MTNN, ZENITHBANK and STANBIC alongside positive market sentiment across some sectors the market closed in the green territory.
The market closed higher by 733.94 basis points as the benchmark index, NGX ASI advanced by 0.99 percent to 74,502.58 points, erasing the losses from the previous day.
Notable buy-pressure in stocks like IKEJAHOTEL, MULTIVERSE, JBERGER, IMG and MCNICHOLS contributed to this upturn, resulting in a 0.99 percent increase in the market cap of listed equities to N40.77 trillion.
Due to the positive market movement, the Exchange reported more gainers (36) than losers (27), also the year-to-date gain of the index peaked at 45.37 percent, with investors gaining N402 billion.
Trading activity on the NGX witnessed a significant decline, with total traded volume falling by 11.17 percent to 384.58 million units. The total traded value also saw a substantial decrease of 56.20 percent, reaching N5.67 billion, while the total number of deals declined by 6.35 percent to 8,336 deals.
Sectoral performance remained positive as the Insurance, Consumer Goods, Oil/Gas and Industrial indexes experienced gains of 2.07 percent, 0.11 percent, 0.02 percent and 1.10 percent, respectively. The Banking sector was the only laggard as it declined by 0.22 percent.
At the close of the session, JAIZBANK emerged as the most traded security by volume with 49.40 million units across 282 trades, while ZENITHBANK led in traded value at N1.06 billion.