By Ngozi Onyeakusi– The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that non-performing loans in the Nigerian banking sector fell by N42.4bn in three months.

According to figures obtained from the NBS’ latest Selected Banking Sector Data Report on Sunday, the total amount of non-performing loans in Nigerian banks fell from N1.21tn at the end of the second quarter of 2020 to N1.17tn as of Q3 2020 The NBS said in terms of credit to the private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the bank stood at N19.87tn as of Q3 2020. “Oil and gas and manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.74tn and N3.03tn to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review,” it said. The data also showed that most of the beneficiaries of bank loans were from Lagos State while Yobe beneficiaries were the least from a total loan of N19.46tn as of the end of Q3 2020. “Lagos beneficiaries recorded the highest credit by geographical distribution with N15.13tn, accounting for 77.74 per cent of the total credit by geographical distribution, while Yobe State recorded the least with N19.38bn, accounting for 0.09 per cent in Q3 2020,” the NBS stated.