By Kehinde Ibrahim, Lagos
NIGERIA’S borrowing from the banking sector rose by 22.5 per cent, quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to N16.3 trillion in the first quarter of 2022 from N13.3 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2021, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed.
The CBN said this in its latest Money and Credit data, which showed that credit to the government contributed the highest of the N4.2 trillion or 8.6 per cent of the increase in credit to the economy between the last quarter of last year and the first quater of 2022.
Credit to the economy rose to N52.7 trillion in the first quarter of 2022 from N48.5 trillion in the last quarter of last year, according to the regulatory bank report.
The report showed that credit to the private sector rose by N1.17 trillion or 3.3 per cent to N36.37 trillion in the first quarter this year against N35.2 trillion in the last quarter of last year.
Also, the report showed that the Currency in circulation (CIC) declined by 2.4 per cent to N3.24 trillion in the first quarter of this year from N3.32 trillion in the last quarter of 2021.
The CBN data showed that currency in circulation fell by 1.2 per cent to N3.28 trillion in January from N3.32 trillion in December 2021. It went down further by 0.9 per cent to N3.25 trillion in February, and 0.3 per cent to N3.24 trillion in March.
Despite the decline in CIC, reserve money rose by 8.3 per cent to N14.3 trillion in the first quarter of 2022, from N13.2 trillion in the last quarter of last year.
