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Worries As Access Bank, UBA, GTB, Others Borrow N3.03trn From CBN in September
Yinka Olajoyetan, Lagos
Commercial banks in Nigeria borrowed a whopping N3.03 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Data monitored from the CBN website says the banks’ borrowings happened within 22 days in September.
The borrowings are indicative of tight liquidity in the banking sector and a sign of non-performing loans.
Banks’ borrowings from the Central Bank of Nigeria surged in September from N322.97 billion in August to N3.03 trillion, an increase of 835 percent.
The banks accessed the borrowings through the Lending Facility of the CBN, the Standing Lending Facility (SLF), which is a short-term credit to commercial banks to draw from when in need of short-term withdrawals from their customers.
Reports say a net SLF is an indication of liquidity problems in commercial banks due to the central bank’s monetary policy or a symptom that the banks have a lot of non-performing loans.
Financial experts believe that the growing SLFs are due to monetary tightening by the apex bank to curtail demand for FX as well as reduce inflation pressure on commercial banks to borrow more money.
In the last two years, CBN has undertaken a monetary policy contraction, relying on its cash reserve requirement and loan-to-deposit ratio to mop up billions from commercial banks weekly