The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that the total value of credit allocated by the banking sector to the private sector stood at N15.13 trillion as at fourth quarter of 2018. It said that Oil & Gas and Manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.55 trillion and N2.23 trillion to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review. As at the end of December, 2018, the total number of banks staffs increased by 1.80 per cent from 102,821in third quarter of 2018 to 104,669.

According to the NBS data Automated Teller Machine (ATM) from selected banks across the country recorded transactions valued at N39.15 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2018. The bureau stated this in its “Selected Banking Sector Data for Fourth Quarter, 2018”, posted on its website. It said that the amount was derived from 616,528,697 transactions recorded as data on “Electronic Payment Channels in the Nigeria Banking Sector” during the period. The bureau added that NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) transactions dominated the volume of transactions recorded in the quarter.

According to the report, 228, 209, 423 NIP transactions valued at N23.57 trillion were recorded in the quarter under review.