Report released from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday revealed that the total credit from banks to the economy recorded a decline of N135.8bn from N15.74tn at the end of the fourth quarter of last year to N15.6tn in the first three months of 2018.
The NBS stated that the total number of staff members in banks decreased by 0.93 per cent from 90,453 in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 89,608 in the first quarter of this year.
It said in the first quarter of this year, the sector recorded a total volume of 457,226,406 transactions valued at N32.48tn.
According to the report, data from electronic payment channels in the Nigeria banking sector revealed that Automated Teller Machine transactions dominated the volume of transactions during the period.
It stated that there were 212,370,853 ATM transactions valued at N1.56tn that were recorded in the first quarter of this year.
The report read in part, “In terms of credit to the private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the banking sector stood at N15.6tn as of Q1 2018.
“Oil and gas and manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.42tn and N2.07tn to record the highest credit allocation as of the period under review.
“As at Q1 2018, the total number of banks’ staff members decreased by 0.93 per cent from 90,453 in Q4 2017 to 89,608.”
Based on analysis of the report, the agricultural sector received N501.6bn; power and energy, N426.5bn; construction, N647.9bn; trade and general commerce, N1.05tn; while credit to government was put at N1.41tn.
In the same vein, the real estate sector received a total loan of N784.2bn; finance, insurance and capital market, N999.4bn; education, N73.48bn; information and communications, N865.32bn; transportation and storage, N291.67n; while other sectors got N384.8bn.