Banks’ borrowing from Central Bank of Nigeria increased to N737.05 billion in May 2022

Nigerian banks‘ borrowings from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Standing Lending Facility (SLF) increased to N737.05 billion in May 2022, indicative of an N124.62 billion uptick. This is according to the CBN’s latest monthly economic report .

The  CBN Standing Lending Facility (SLF) activities increased by 20.4% to N737.05 billion in May 2022 compared  to N612.43 billion in the end-April 2022.

The report also noted that consumer credit outstanding grew by 0.8% to N2,344.10 billion at the end-May, from N2,325.97 billion in the preceding month.

The apex bank said “the total standing lending facility increased considerably by 20.4% to N737.05 billion relative to N612.43 billion at end-April 2022. Similarly, relative to the preceding month, the total standing deposit facility increased slightly by 0.2 percent to N321.23 billion from N320.55 billion.”

“At the open buyback (OBB) segment, as the rate increased by 190 basis points to 9.39 percent, the value of transactions declined to N213.75 billion from N228.42 billion in the preceding month. The average daily number of deals in the OBB segment fell to 64 from 75 deals in the preceding period,” the bank added.

The CBN  noted that Consumer Credit outstanding grew by 0.8% to N2,344.10 billion at the end-May, from N2,325.97 billion in the preceding month.

The bank said, “the sustained increase in consumer credit reflected a growth of new financial product offerings and the effectiveness of the bank’s various policies to encourage credit expansion. By disaggregation, retail loans recorded a sizable growth of 13.2%, to N554.83 billion from N489.97 billion in end-April, while personal loans decreased by 2.5% to N1,789.26 billion relative to N1,835.99 billion in the preceding month.”

The SLF is a platform where commercial banks access funds to carry out their business activities and meet obligations. The SDF window is the portal where commercial banks deposit funds with the apex bank.

The CBN hiked  the interest rate to 14% in July 2022 and the savings deposit interest rate increased to 4.2% from 1.4% to curb rising inflationary pressure as well as encourage FX inflow into the economy.

Nairametrics reported that the CBN Ways and Means balance at the end of 2021 was N17.4 trillion at the end of 2021 but has now risen to N19.9 trillion as of June 2022.