Bad Loans: Power Firms Owe Over N100bn

• Bad Loans: Power Firms Owe Over N100bn

The National Bureau of Statistics put the total non-performing loans accrued to the power sector at N100.42 billion.

According to the report, the power and energy sector is responsible for the fifth largest non-performing loan in the banking sector– out of the 22 sectors surveyed.

The bureau put the total debt owed by the sector to banks at N683.93 billion as of April 2019.

A breakdown of the report shows that the power and energy sector received the seventh-largest credit facility from banks in the private sector.

The sector got a total loan of N280.42 (naira component) and N403.51 billion (foreign component).

However, the bad loan in the power and energy sector declined slightly by 0.59 percent from N101.07 billion in April 2018 to N100.42 billion in April 2019. The lowest among the sectors.

As usual, the oil and gas sector received the largest credit facility during the period under review. The sector received a total of N4.68 trillion out of the N15.45 trillion loans issued by banks.

Followed by the manufacturing sector, N2.24 trillion; governments, N1.37 trillion; and general commerce, N1.04 trillion.

High non-performing loans in the banking sector remained an issue as investors are worried if the new central bank policy, 60 percent loan-to-deposit ratio, won’t worsen it, especially with lenders likely to start loaning aggressively in order to meet the stipulated target.