The total assets and liabilities of commercial banks stood at N31,792.04 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2016, representing an increase of 1.6 per cent over the level at the end of the second quarter of the period under review.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s economic report for the Q3, the Deposit Money Bank’s funds were sourced mainly from drawdown on reserves, and increase in capital accounts and foreign liabilities. The funds were also used mainly to reduce time, savings and foreign currency deposits, demand deposit and unclassified liabilities as well as to increase claims on the central government.
However, banks’ credit to the domestic economy also rose by 5.3 per cent when it closed at N21.485billion, relative to the level at end-June 2016. The development was attributed to the increase in claims on both the private sector and the Federal Government, in the quarter under review.
CBN’s credit to the commercial banks also fell by 17.9 per cent to N855.57billion, at the end of the review quarter. Total specified liquid assets of the bank went up to N6.782billion, representing 37 per cent of their total current liabilities.
Analysis of the data from the apex bank also showed that the liquidity ratio expanded by 8.13 per cent above the level at the end of the preceding quarter and was 7 per cent above the stipulated minimum ratio of 30 per cent.
The loans-to-deposit ratio was 6.18 per cent, above the level at the end of the preceding quarter. At the secondary part of the capital market, it was characterised by investors’ low sentiments, high volatility and poor performance by listed companies in the review period.
Hence, developments on the Nigerian Stock Exchange were generally bearish. Total volume and value of traded securities declined by 32.3 per cent and 8.7 per cent to 18.3 billion shares and N149.1 billion in 211,065 deals, compared with 27.04 billion shares worth N163.36 billion in 251,646 deals recorded in the second quarter of 2016.
