A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
Local manufacturers, as at September 2022 owed Zenith Bank of Nigeria Plc a total of N901billion.
The companies include Flour Mills of Nigeria ( N117.74billion); Beverage and Tobacco( N85 26billion; Cement Manufacturing N247.66 billion; N101.15billion; and other manufacturing N466.90billlion..
The money, owed at different times, by the manufacturing concerns, was used in meeting up their operational challenges in the country.
This happens as sector players bemoan high lending rates that undermine productivity, MoneyCentral report has revealed.
Data gathered by MoneyCentral shows this is a 9.55 percent increase from 2021’s N822.50 billion.
It should be noted that credit to manufacturers make up 25.12 percent of Zenith Bank’s total gross loans of N4.06 trillion.
Additionally, the sector comprises 28 percent of total dollar loans , according to data from the bank’s financial statement.
Diversified loan portfolio across sectors has supported asset quality of the lender as non-performing loans (NPLs) of 4.40 percent, though higher than 4.20 percent for 2021, is lower than the 5 percent regulatory threshold.
The Group adopts a complete and integrated approach to risk management that is driven from the Board level to the operational activities of the bank, according to the bank’s strategy statement.
“Risk management is practiced as a collective responsibility coordinated by the risk control units and is properly segregated from the market facing units to assure independence,” said the bank.
Nigerian banks have been much more prudent in allocation of loans in the aftermath of huge exposure to the oil and gas elicited by the precipitous drop in crude oil price of mid-2014 that tipped the country into its first recession in 25 years in 2016.
The coronavirus pandemic ballooned impairment charge to financial assets, but there has been a reduction in write offs or in loan loss expense on the back of the relaxation of lockdown policy and successful rollout of vaccines.
The Non-Performing Loans (NPL) ratio of commercial banks in Nigeria jumped to 5.3% in April 2022 from 4.84% held in February 2022. This is according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Further analysis of the loan portfolio of Zenith Bank shows it extended loans worth N117.74 billion to Flour Mills of Nigeria; Beverages and Tobacco, N85.26 billion; Cement Manufacturing, N247.66 billion; N101.15 billion; and other manufacturing, N466.90 billion.
Manufacturers who are reeling from foreign exchange scarcity, rising inflation, and decrepit infrastructure say the current lending rate on loans offered to the productive sector by the commercial banks discourage productivity in the sector.
The Monetary Policy
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central (MPC) of the central bank has hiked the Monetary Policy Rate to 16.50 percent as it seeks to tame stubborn inflation.
To ameliorate the pains of companies, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has promised to provide single-digit loans to manufacturers of no more than 9 per cent.
“We want to ensure that the manufacturing sector can access capital at a single-digit rate of not more than nine percent,” said Emefiele.
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