For frequent borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by commercial banks, the regulator recorded N3.29 billion as interest income in February 2017.

Although some of the lenders kept their excess cash at CBN’s Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) within the period under review, others, including merchant banks continued to access the Standing Lending Facility (SLF).

By the subsisting decision of the Monetary Policy Committee, applicable rates for SLF and SDF remained at 16 per cent and nine per cent, respectively.The huge patronage by banks was to make up their positions, either borrowing from the CBN or depositing excess reserves at the end of each business day, especially for some that were hit hard by persistent liquidity mop up, payment for dollar, treasury bills and bonds’ auctions.
An analysis of the apex bank’s February Economic Report, showed that the there was more patronage of the SLF facility than the SDF window, an indication that the banks were cash-trapped.

Total request for SLF, including Intra­day Lending Facility (ILF) that were converted to Overnight instrument, made up of N696.31 billion direct SLF and N3.57 trillion ILF, amounted to N4.26 trillion, with a daily average of N224.57 billion.

Therefore, CBN earned N3.29 billion in interest income, representing an increase when compared with SLF of N3.38 trillion and interest income of N2.7 billion in January 2017.

Total SDF granted during the review period was N742.62 billion, with a daily average of N39.1 billion, compared with N1.85 trillion in January 2017.

On the other hand, the interest payment to banks on SDF in February 2017 was N218.39 million, compared with N633.32 billion in January 2017.

Similarly, the persistent liquidity mop up exercise by the apex bank resulted to increased lending rates among banks.

During the period, at the inter­bank call segment, the weighted average rate, which stood at 8.15 per cent in the preceding month, rose significantly by 19.31 percentage points to 27.46 per cent.

Also, the weighted average rate at the Open Buy Back (OBB) segment increased from 8.69 per cent in the preceding month to 23.60 per cent.

Meanwhile, a total of N527.6 million was guaranteed to 3,324 farmers by CBN under its Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) in February 2017.

This amount represented 12.6 and 14.3 per cent decline below the levels in the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2016, respectively.

A sub-sectoral analysis showed that food crops got the largest share of N330.3 million (62.6 per cent) guaranteed to 2,309 beneficiaries.

The mixed crops sub-sector received N25.7 million (4.9 per cent) guaranteed to 164 beneficiaries; livestock, N72 million (13.7 per cent) guaranteed to 314 beneficiaries; and cash crops, N52 million (9.9 per cent) guaranteed to 270 beneficiaries.

The fisheries sub-sector had N24.5 million (4.6 per cent) guaranteed to 89 farmers, while others got N23.1 million (4.4 per cent) guaranteed to 178 beneficiaries.