As the President Bola Tinubu administration’s policy reform initiatives continue to accentuate the socio-economic hardships of millions of ordinary Nigerians by the day, the latest report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicated that more bank customers had been resorting to borrowing to survive and support their socioeconomic activities.
The latest Economic Report of the apex bank for the Second Quarter of 2023 indicated that consumer credit, which includes personal and retail loans, rose to N2.64 trillion, representing a 12.2% increase when compared to the N2.35 trillion borrowed by them in the preceding quarter of the year.
This implies that the customers’ borrowing increased by N290 billion in three-month period between April and June this year.
An analysis of the borrowings reflected that out of the total consumer credit of N2.64 trillion, personal loans totaled N1.92 trillion or 72.9 % of the credit extended to the customers while retain loans stood at N715.10 billion or 27.1%.
The report stated inter alia: “Consumer credit improved owing to increased demand for personal loans and strengthened enforcement of the Loan-to-Deposit Ratio (LDR) policy. Consequently, total consumer credit increased significantly by 12.2%, to N2,637.31 billion in the second quarter of 2023, compared with N2,349.88 billion at the end of the preceding quarter.
“As a share of total credit by ODCs, consumer credit declined to 7.0%, this was below the 7.7 and 7.8 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2022, respectively. The components of consumer credit revealed that personal loans accounted for the larger share, totalling N1,922.20 billion, representing 72.9% of the total, while retail loans accounted for 27.1%, equivalent to N715.10 billion”, the apex bank added.
It attributed the surging borrowings from the banks primarily to growing demand for personal loans and that it also reinforced the implementation of the LDR policy of the CBN.
