.ATM Transactions Hit N514B
By Mike Abba
CBN Governor Emefiele
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that banking sector credit to the private sector increased to N15.83 trillion or 0.7 per cent in third quarter of the year ended September 30.
The report also revealed that volume of transactions recorded on Automated Teller Machine (ATM) were valued at N514 billion in the review period.
The NBS further stated that in the second quarter of 2017, the banking sector credit to private sector was N15.71 trillion while it was N16 trillion in first quarter of 2017.
The statistics Bureau in its latest report on ‘Sectorial Breakdown of Credit, ePayment Channels, Deposits & Domestic Credit Breakdown and Staff Strength’, revealed that banks’ lending was mainly to three sectors of the economy – Agriculture, Industry and Services.
Contrary to policy expectations, banks’ lending to the Agriculture sector continued to drop, while banking investment in the Oil & Gas increased significantly this year.
The NBS revealed that banking sector credit to the agricultural sector dropped by 1.9 per cent to N491.5 billion in third quarter of 2017 from N501.1 billion reported in second of 2017.
Banking sector credit to the power sector (industry) dropped by 1.5 per cent to N459 billion in third quarter of 2017 as against N466 billion in second quarter of 2016 while banking sector credit to Services dropped by 1.75 per cent to N296.87 billion from N302.18 billion in the second quarter of 2017.
On the Oil & Gas sector (under Services and Industry) banks’ credit during the period hit N4.68 trillion as global oil prices continued to recovery in 2017.
The NBS report further revealed that banking sector credit to the Oil & Gas industry sector was at N3.54 trillion in third quarter of 2017 from N3.5 trillion in second quarter of 2016 while Oil & Gas services rose by 4.7 per cent to N1.14 trillion from N1.09 trillion in the second quarter of 2017.
The statistics Bureau said, “Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.54trillion and N2.27 trillion to record the highest credit allocation in the period under review.”
On alternative payment system, the report disclosed that a total volume of 213,693,964 transactions valued at N19.33 trillion were recorded in third quarter of 2017 data on Electronic Payment Channels in the Nigeria Banking Sector revealed.
According to the report, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Instant Payment (NIP) transactions dominated the volume of transactions recorded. 97,530,856 volume of NIP transactions valued at N13.963 billion were recorded in third quarter of 2017.
