By Elizabeth Adegbesan

Banks’ borrowings from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Standing Lending Facility, SLF, rose year-on-year (YoY) by 464 percent to N4.95 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1’23)   from N877 billion   in the corresponding period of 2022, Q1’22.

Vanguard findings from the CBN Financial Data for the period showed that banks’  borrowings from the apex bank which had declined month-on-month in February this year by 14 percent, suddenly spiked by 775 percent to  N3.97 trillion in March and declined by 45.8 percent to N2.15 trillion in April.

The data also showed that   banks’ deposits in the apex bank’s Standing Deposit Facility, SDF,   rose YoY   by 26 percent to N1.72 trillion in Q1 ’23 from N1.36 trillion in Q1’22.      

The banks deposited N584.79 billion in January. The figure rose by 14 percent to N668.86 billion in February and down  by 29.5 percent to N471.4 billion in March.

Reflecting a real cash crunch in the money market, the data also show that while the deposits recorded 14 percent increase in February, a significant downward trend began in March into April.

The rise in banks’ borrowings from the SLF   contradict the mopping up of cash into the banking system during the period following the CBN’s cashless policy measure.

Recall that the CBN redesigned the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and set a deadline for the old notes to cease being legal.  

During the period, the CBN Money and Credit data for January showed that Nigerians in response to the initial deadline, deposited N1.81 trillion into the banking system in January.  

Consequently, Currency Outside   Banks, CoB, fell month-on-month (MoM) by 70 per cent to N788.9 billion in January 2023 from N2.6 trillion in December 2022.

However, CoB has continued to rise following the Supreme Court extension of  the validity of the N200, N500, and N1,000 old notes till December 31, 2023.  

CoB rose to N843 billion in February and  N1.44 trillion in March. Similarly, in April CoB increased to   N2.07 trillion.