Four Nigerian banks are operating with too many non-performing loans on their books and with liquidity ratios below the minimum requirement, two members of the central bank monetary policy committee said in statements on the bank’s website.
They did not name the lenders but said the four banks together were equivalent to at least one systemically important bank, policy-setter Doyin Salami said in his statement, published late on Tuesday.
Financial sector stress tests showed capital adequacy ratios for the industry in Nigeria worsened to 11.51 percent in June, from 12.81 percent in April, as against a regulatory minimum of 15 percent for lenders with international licenses.
“The financial performance indicators showed that when the four outlier banks were removed, capital adequacy, (NPLs) non-performing loan ratio as well as liquidity ratio are all above the prudential requirement,” another member, Balami Dahiru Hassan, said.
NPLs stood at 15.07 percent in June compared with 5 percent regulatory limit. Salami said the ratio stood at 8.17 percent when excluding the four lenders in question.
The IMF has urged Nigerian authorities to quickly increase the capital of undercapitalized banks and putting a time limit on regulatory forbearance after it said last month that four lenders were under-capitalised.
Nigeria’s Union Bank on Wednesday started a 50 billion naira share sale to existing shareholders to enhance its regulatory and working capital.
