Nonperforming loans (NPL) in the banking sector fell by 41 percent, year-on-year (YoY) to N1.05 trillion in 2019 from N1.79 trillion in 2018.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this yesterday in its Selected Banking Sector Data for the fourth quarter 2019 (Q4’19).

The bureau also disclosed that banks’ credit to private sector rose in 2019 by four percent to N17.19 trillion from N15.13 trillion in 2018.

NBS data showed that credit allocated to Oil and Gas sector dropped by four percent, YoY,    to N3.42 trillion in 2019 from N3.55 trillion in 2018 while credit allocated to  manufacturing sector rose by 18 percent, YoY to N2.62 trillion from N2.23 trillion in 2018.

The bureau stated: ”In terms of credit to private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the bank stood at N17.19 trillion as at Q4’19. Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.42 trillion and N2.62 trillion respectively, to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review.”

Meanwhile, NBS also disclosed that the number of bank staff dropped slightly by one percent, YoY, to 103,610 staff  in 2019 from 104,669 staff in 2018. However, the number of contract staff rose in 2019 by 0.25 percent to 45,350 from 45,238 staff in 2018.

Vanguard