James Emejo in Abuja
The Managing Director/Chief Executive, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, has put banks’ total non-performing loans (NPLs) portfolio at N1.82 trillion as at December 2016.
Specifically, he said the 25 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) had total loans portfolio of N18.53 trillion out of which N1.85 trillion or 10 per cent were NPLs where N740 billion or 40 per cent constituted Insider/Directors related loans.
According to him, the figure was far above regulatory threshold of five per cent for the DMBs.
Speaking during the defence of the corporation’s proposed 2017 budget before the House of representatives Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters, he added that while the banking industry indicated strong fundamentals in regulatory assessment and rating, regulators were concerned about the rising tide of NPLs in the banking system.
Meanwhile, the NDIC boss said it proposed to spend the sum of N76.72 billion for 2017 while also targeting a total income of N102.29 billion in the same period.
According to the corporations budget estimate for the year, its operating expenses was put at N43.22 billion or 49.94 per cent of total expenditure as well as total Capital expenditure of N43.32 billion or 50.06 per cent of the total budget.
The capital expenditure would be funded by the corporation’s General Reserve Fund which stood at N45.67 billion as at December 31, 2016.
Ibrahim added that a total of N47.25 billion was also being proposed as 80 per cent net Operating surplus to be transferred into Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) in 2017.
In his presentation, which was commended by the committee, Ibrahim stated that in 2016, the corporations actual income (net of provisions) was N85.02 billion which was expendable to the limit of 75 per cent in line with the provisions of Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2007 while its total expenses was N31.551 billion.
This gave a net operating surplus of N53.46 billion out of which the corporation made provision to transfer the sum of N42.77 billion or 80 per cent into the CRF.
According to him, as at Febuary 2017, the Corporation had made a total transfer of N35.89 billion into CRF while awaiting the conclusion of its 2016 External Audit report before transferring the outstanding balance of N6.88 billion to the CRF in line with FRA 2007.
In a statement signed by Hakeem Bakare, on behalf of the Head, Communication and Public Affairs, Ibrahim said with this, the corporation had surpassed its budgeted sum of N35.89 billion as against the actual sum of N42.77 billion transferred into CRF.
The members of the committee had expressed grave concern over the increasing wave of non-performing loans (NPLs) particularly delinquent insider related facilities in various banks and its consequences on the stability of the nation’s banking system-and members demanded an update on the state of the Nigerian banking system.
