Broadcasting
How Policy Missteps Weigh Down Nigeria’s Fragile Banking Giants
By Blaise Udunze
Nigeria’s banking sector has always stood at the center of the nation’s economic hopes. Yet, instead of fueling growth and wealth creation, the sector finds itself trapped in a cycle of fragility, weighed down by policies that appear more punitive than progressive. At the heart of this malaise is the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) reliance on blunt instruments such as the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR), a policy tool that has tied down bank capital in idle vaults rather than channeling it into the real sector economy.
The logic of the CBN is clear enough, which is to mop up liquidity to curb inflation. But the consequences are undeniable. When banks are compelled to warehouse huge reserves that could otherwise be deployed into productive ventures, the real sector, especially small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), suffers. These are the very businesses that create jobs, drive innovation, and power inclusive growth. Instead, they are starved of credit because funds remain sterilized at the apex bank in the name of macroeconomic stability.
In times of economic turbulence, inflation control is often the rallying cry of central bankers. In Nigeria, that battle has become an almost singular obsession of the CBN. The preferred weapon? The blunt tightening of monetary policy, raising interest rates and locking away massive portions of banks’ deposits under the CRR. While this might look decisive on paper, in practice it creates collateral damage, leaving banks unable to finance the very sectors that drive jobs, innovation, and long-term growth, most critically, SMEs and entrepreneurs.
The reality is simple, all in the name of fighting inflation, it should not mean strangling credit creation. There are smarter, targeted tools available, and many countries have deployed them with success. Around the world, regulators employ a mix of interest rate adjustments, open market operations, and forward guidance to curb inflation without choking off credit to the real economy. Nigeria must learn from these models and adapt them to its peculiar circumstances.
To tame inflation without choking growth, the CBN could pivot to more sophisticated instruments. Selective credit windows can guarantee lending to SMEs, agriculture, and manufacturing, even under tighter conditions. Differentiated reserve requirements can reward banks’ lending to productive sectors while penalizing speculative lending. Granular open market operations can absorb excess liquidity without suffocating the economy. Macroprudential tools can target bubbles in consumer lending or real estate speculation instead of blanket credit strangulation. And crucially, there must be fiscal-monetary coordination, because inflation driven by food insecurity, energy costs, and government overspending cannot be solved by monetary tightening alone.
Yet Nigeria’s banking fragility cannot be laid at the feet of monetary policy alone. The system’s weaknesses are also rooted in weak governance structures, insider abuses, poor risk management, and an idle treasury management culture. Corporate governance in many banks is treated as a box-ticking exercise rather than a framework for accountability. Boards often lack independence, while regulatory oversight is reactive instead of preventive. This creates fertile ground for insider abuse as directors and their cronies secure loans and contracts without due process or repayment discipline.
The evidence is stark. For eight of the country’s largest Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), total non-performing loans (NPLs) doubled in just one year from about N1.29 trillion in 2023 to N2.59 trillion in 2024. Their average NPL ratio climbed from 3.82 percent in 2023 to 4.99 percent in 2024. Across the industry, the CBN reported an NPL ratio of around 4.5 percent by the end of 2024, only for it to spike to 5.62 percent by April 2025, above the regulatory ceiling of 5 percent. Much of this surge reflects reclassified loans after stricter risk assessments, but it underlines a disturbing trend, showing that fragility is deepening, not abating.
For instance, a customer of the defunct Heritage Bank that was recently liquidated by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, who happened to be the publisher of one of the daily newspapers, was heavily indebted to the bank to the tune of several billions. Following his death during the COVID era, the newspaper outfit struggled to meet its obligations until the eventual shutdown of the bank. Among many cases, this episode shows how a single borrower’s collapse can trigger wider institutional vulnerabilities, worsening the sector’s fragility.
If just one of these economic heavyweights were to collapse, the domino effect could topple multiple banks at once. This is not the hallmark of a robust financial system; it is the mark of fragility. Equally troubling is the poor risk management culture. Credit assessments are often weak, operational risks underestimated, and stress testing neglected until crisis hits. To this is added an idle treasury management culture where banks prefer to park funds in low-yield assets or leave them sterilized under regulatory compulsion instead of channeling them into productive ventures. In a country battling unemployment, weak industrial growth, and inflation, idle treasuries are nothing short of economic sabotage.
One of the starkest contradictions in Nigeria’s economic management lies in the government’s heavy borrowing from the very banking system that the CBN seeks to discipline in the name of fighting inflation. On the one hand, the CBN raises CRR levels and applies other restrictive measures, effectively locking away banking capital to limit credit expansion. On the other, the federal government consistently turns to the same banks to finance its deficit through bonds, Treasury bills, and the now-controversial Ways & Means facility.
The scale of this borrowing is staggering. A Premium Times investigation revealed that CBN advances to the federal government surged by about 2,900 percent in just seven years, peaking at N23.8 trillion, spanning Ways & Means and other credit lines. In one stretch, the government borrowed an additional N3.8 trillion in only six months through the Ways & Means window. Although the CBN has recently reduced such lending by 59 percent in a bid to enforce monetary discipline, the damage to credibility is already done.
Legal borrowing caps, which tie government advances to revenue, have been repeatedly breached with little consequence. To ease pressure, the government has resorted to securitizing parts of this debt, most notably converting the N23.7 trillion Ways & Means facility into longer-term instruments. While this may buy time, it does not erase the contradiction that the CBN sterilizes liquidity with one hand, only for the federal government to pump it back into circulation with the other.
This practice has two damaging consequences. First, it inflates the money supply by redirecting liquidity back into circulation through government borrowing, negating the CBN’s inflation-control measures. Second, it crowds out private sector borrowers, especially SMEs, who are already starved of affordable credit. The result is a distorted system where banks prefer risk-free lending to the government over financing the real economy.
Such policy misalignment undermines trust in the financial system. Stakeholders see a regulator trying to sterilize liquidity while the government injects it back, a tug-of-war that signals confusion rather than coherence. The broader implication is that Nigeria’s inflationary pressures are not merely monetary but structural, requiring coordination between fiscal and monetary authorities. Without such alignment, the fight against inflation becomes self-defeating, eroding confidence in the apex bank’s credibility and deepening economic fragility.
The way forward is not to keep banks in chains but to align policy with growth. Free up productive capital. Enforce strict sanctions on insider abusers and delinquent big borrowers. Strengthen governance and risk management frameworks. And above all, embrace smarter, more dynamic monetary tools that fight inflation without suffocating the economy. Nigeria cannot grow if its banking system remains fragile. And the banking system cannot thrive if the very policies meant to strengthen it are the ones cutting off its oxygen supply.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional writes from Lagos, can be reached via: [email protected]
Broadcasting
NBC Files Fresh Appeal against Judgment Barring it from Imposing Fines on Broadcast Stations
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has filed an application seeking the permission of the court of appeal to file a fresh appeal against the judgement of the federal high court in Abuja barring it from imposing fines on erring broadcast stations.
In the application filed at the court of appeal in Abuja by Dapo Akinosun, counsel to the NBC, the commission argued sanity in Nigeria’s broadcasting sector is under threat and that the public interest would be better served if the court grants the application.
On January 17, 2024, Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, a judge at the federal high court in Abuja, restrained the NBC from imposing a N5 million fine on broadcast stations sanctioned in 2022 over allegations of “undermining Nigeria’s national security by broadcasting documentaries on banditry in Nigeria”.
The affected broadcast stations were Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV; TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV); Trust-TV Network Limited; and NTA StarTimes Limited.
The suit was filed by Media Rights Agenda (MRA).
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the NBC appealed the judgement filed an appeal at the court of appeal in Abuja.
In June, the court of appeal dismissed the commission’s appeal, holding that it was “fundamentally defective” and incompetent.
Jane Inyang, lead judge of the panel, held that the parties before the lower court were identified as “Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda (as applicant) and National Broadcasting Commission (as respondent)” but in the notice of appeal the purported appellant was described as the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission”,
The judge held that the discrepancy was significant and that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the commission’s appeal.
In the application, the NBC urged the court to grant it leave to raise and argue a fresh issue on appeal relating to the legal capacity of MRA to institute and maintain the original suit before the lower court.
The commission argued that the defect in the earlier notice of appeal, which resulted in the dismissal of its appeal, arose “solely from an inadvertent misdescription” of its name by its lawyer.
The NBC told the court that the subsisting judgement raises questions on the commission’s statutory powers to regulate broadcasting and enforce compliance with broadcasting standards in Nigeria.
The commission argued that the subsisting judgment is capable of creating uncertainty regarding its regulatory powers if it is allowed to stand.
The NBC also argued that without the pronouncement by the appellate court on the issues raised in the appeal, its regulatory framework would be weakened.
“A weakened regulatory framework may embolden non-compliance with established broadcasting standards, thereby increasing the dissemination of false, misleading and unverified information capable of causing unnecessary public anxiety, panic and social unrest,” the NBC said.
“Absence of effective regulatory oversight may further encourage irresponsible broadcasting practices and the misuse of broadcast and digital media platforms by persons who deliberately publish sensational, inaccurate or inflammatory content to intimidate, harass or unduly influence individuals, institutions and public discourse.”
David Adedeji Adeleke, known professionally as Davido, has shared his past suicidal thoughts as he dropped Oriadé, his sixth studio album yesterday.
Davido
Davido said he chose the date on purpose as it marks exactly 15 years since he began his professional music career.
Oriadé is a Yoruba word combining “Ori,” meaning destiny, and “Adé,” meaning crown.
It translates to “the crowned head.” The album has 13 tracks and features Black Sherif, Aya Nakamura, Leon Thomas, Mayorkun, and Llona.
It follows his 2025 project, 5ive, which reached number two on the Billboard World Albums chart.
Davido also announced an international tour to support the new record.
In the days leading up to the release, Davido gave interviews that revealed personal details about his past and his current life.
Speaking to Vibe Magazine on Thursday, he described a 2014 incident in Ghana that left him feeling suicidal.
He said he invited a woman back to his hotel room after a show, and she later posted a photo of him sleeping online.
He said the fallout overwhelmed him.
“My daddy was calling me. My sisters were calling me. If I saw the balcony that day, I would have jumped,” he said.
He said he was young at the time and did not fully understand the consequences of his actions.
He described the experience as a turning point that changed how he thinks about privacy and fame.
In the same interview, he explained why he often dresses down in public despite his wealth.
He recalled a trip to the South of France where he went out in shorts and slippers without his watch.
“I’ve been on jets, I’ve been flying, I’ve been in all these places since I was a baby. I’ve been seeing money since I was a baby. So all these things don’t really excite me,” he said.
He added that he sometimes prefers to drive a Toyota to the supermarket in Atlanta instead of one of his luxury cars.
In a separate livestream with Davrel, Davido spoke about how his life has changed since marrying his wife, Chioma, and becoming a father.
He said his home no longer holds the large crowds it once did.
“I can no longer have 100 people in my house like before,” he said.
He said he speaks to Chioma every day regardless of his schedule.
He also disclosed that he spends between $200,000 and $300,000 a month on himself, not including costs for his wife, children, jewelry and cars.
He said the amount is lower when he is in the United States, where he described his lifestyle as quieter.
Africa Prudential Plc has reaffirmed its commitment to digital transformation, revenue diversification and sustainable growth after reporting a strong financial performance for the first half of 2026.
Dr Catherine Nwosu
The company made this known during its H1 2026 Investor Call, which brought together institutional investors, shareholders, investment analysts, regulators and other stakeholders to review its financial performance and strategic outlook.
Dr Catherine Nwosu, managing director and Chief Executive Officer of Africa Prudential, said the company’s performance reflected the resilience of its business model and the effectiveness of its long-term growth strategy despite prevailing macroeconomic challenges.
According to the company’s financial results, gross earnings rose by 27 per cent year-on-year to N4.28 billion, from N3.34 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
Profit before tax increased by 22 per cent to N2.41 billion, while profit after tax grew by 18 per cent to N1.59 billion.
The company also reported a 27 per cent rise in net operating income to N4.21 billion, while total assets increased by 13 per cent to N46.53 billion.
Shareholders’ funds equally rose by 13 per cent to N12.52 billion, reflecting continued financial strength.
Management attributed the performance to sustained growth in its core registrar business, increased corporate action activities in the Nigerian capital market, improved treasury earnings and rising adoption of its technology-driven solutions.
The company said it was steadily transforming from a traditional share registrar into a broader technology and business solutions provider serving Nigeria’s capital market ecosystem.
During the interactive session, investors sought clarification on the sustainability of earnings, particularly as interest rates are expected to moderate.
Responding, Nwosu said the company was deliberately expanding its recurring fee-based revenue streams to reduce dependence on treasury income.
“Interest rates influence our treasury income positively, but that is why we are deliberately diversifying our revenue streams.
“Our strategy is to grow recurring fee-based business lines such as our digital solutions, Know Your Customer (KYC) services, Annual General Meeting (AGM) technology, probate services and the SabiVest mobile app.
“Over time, this will reduce our reliance on interest income and create a more balanced and resilient earnings mix,” she said.
Nwosu noted that increasing capital market activities had created stronger demand for seamless digital investor experiences, improved operational efficiency and enhanced compliance solutions.
She said the company would continue investing in technology-enabled products capable of delivering long-term value to shareholders while strengthening its competitive position.
According to her, Africa Prudential has identified five strategic priorities for the second half of 2026.
The priorities include driving sustainable growth across its core registrar and emerging business lines, accelerating technology-led product innovation, strengthening brand leadership, investing in talent development and deepening corporate governance.
She said the investor engagement demonstrated the company’s commitment to transparency, accountability and regular engagement with shareholders and the investment community.
Africa Prudential reaffirmed its commitment to leveraging innovation, operational excellence and sound financial management to sustain growth and strengthen its leadership position in Nigeria’s capital market.
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