Banks’ borrowings from CBN rise 464% to N4.95 trillion

Banks’ borrowings from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Standing Lending Facility, SLF, rose year-on-year (YoY) by 464 per cent to N4.95 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1’23) from N877 billion in the corresponding period of 2022, Q1’22.

Report findings from the CBN Financial Data for the period showed that banks’ borrowings from the apex bank which had declined month-on-month in February this year by 14 per cent, suddenly spiked by 775 per cent to N3.97 trillion in March and declined by 45.8 per cent to N2.15 trillion in April.

The data also showed that banks’ deposits in the apex bank’s Standing Deposit Facility, SDF, rose YoY by 26 per cent to N1.72 trillion in Q1 ’23 from N1.36 trillion in Q1’22.

The banks deposited N584.79 billion in January. The figure rose by 14 per cent to N668.86 billion in February and down by 29.5 per cent to N471.4 billion in March.

Reflecting a real cash crunch in the money market, the data also show that while the deposits recorded a 14 per cent increase in February, a significant downward trend began in March into April.

The rise in banks’ borrowings from the SLF contradicts the mopping up of cash into the banking system during the period following the CBN’s cashless policy measure.
Recall that the CBN redesigned the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and set a deadline for the old notes to cease being legal.

During the period, the CBN Money and Credit data for January showed that Nigerians in response to the initial deadline, deposited N1.81 trillion into the banking system in January.
Consequently, Currency Outside Banks, CoB, fell month-on-month (MoM) by 70 per cent to N788.9 billion in January 2023 from N2.6 trillion in December 2022.

However, CoB has continued to rise following the Supreme Court extension of the validity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 old notes till December 31, 2023.
CoB rose to N843 billion in February and N1.44 trillion in March. Similarly, in April CoB increased to N2.07 trillion.