Broadcasting
CBN’s N75 Trillion Credit Milestone to Private Sector Falls Flat as Productivity Crisis Deepens
By Blaise Udunze
Nigeria’s financial system is flashing red, and not because of a scarcity of money. Ironically, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the nation’s banking proudly tout a historic rise in private-sector credit, announcing figures hovering around N75 trillion throughout 2024-2025. On paper, this looks like a funding boom, a sign that businesses are borrowing, investing, expanding, and building. But on the ground, the country’s real sector tells a very different story.
Manufacturers that are the backbone of industrial output have withdrawn en masse from bank loans, their loan books collapsing by an alarming 20.3 percent within a single year. SMEs, which constitute over 90 percent of Nigeria’s businesses and nearly half of the national GDP, remain shut out of formal credit. Banks themselves are quietly battling rising non-performing loans (NPLs), with several institutions breaching the CBN’s 5 percent regulatory threshold. Meanwhile, the official “N75 trillion” credit figure hangs in the air like an illusion that appeared to be big, impressive, but dangerously misleading. This feature unpacks the contradiction. If credit is indeed booming, where did the money go? And why is the real economy shrinking away from bank financing at a time when it should be expanding?
The financial statements of Nigeria’s top manufacturers for the first nine months of 2025 show a coordinated withdrawal from bank credit. Their aggregate bank borrowings plunged from N2.526 trillion in 2024 to N2.014 trillion in 2025, a dramatic 20.3 percent drop. The details are striking:
– BUA Foods fell from N1.559 trillion to N1.105 trillion;
– Nestlé Nigeria from N653.7 billion to N521.01 billion;
– Nigerian Breweries from N204.17 billion to N162.17 billion.
– NASCON’s borrowings dropped 98percent, from N3.3 billion to N67 million.
– Others: Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, Guinness, and International Breweries took no new loans.
These are not marginal firms but some of the most capital-intensive, employment-generating entities in the country. Their exodus from bank borrowing is a referendum on Nigeria’s brutal credit environment, where the Monetary Policy Rate of 27-27.5 percent has pushed effective lending rates well above 30 percent, making loans unaffordable even for working capital.
The retreat has slashed their financing costs by 52.8 percent, from N1.4 trillion to N662 billion. This is not because interest rates fell; they didn’t. Businesses simply stopped borrowing.
Finance expert David Adonri describes it bluntly: “Borrowers shun bank credit… lending rates have not come down materially. Banks’ income may fall below expectations.”
But the bigger concern is not banks’ income, it is the economy’s ability to invest and grow.
This is the question that unsettles economists, industry players, and SMEs alike.
If manufacturers pull back, SMEs remain excluded, and retail borrowing is suppressed; who receives the N75 trillion? What did it finance?
The answer reveals that Nigeria’s credit allocation remains opaque; however, historical patterns and recent financial data point in three directions. Even more concerning are recent claims that the modest loan growth recorded in 2024-2025 is not commensurate with the explosive expansion of banks’ balance sheets.
This suggests that the system is growing with deposits rising, assets swelling, FX revaluation inflating balance sheets, but actual lending to the productive economy is barely moving.
The credit growth being celebrated is therefore not only concentrated but also superficial and disconnected from balance sheet realities.
1. Lending concentration in big corporate and government entities
For decades, banks have preferred lending to large corporations and government-linked entities like:
– Oil & Gas
– Conglomerates and trading groups
– Government contractors
– Financial market operators
– Large borrowers with FX exposure
Even CBN’s earlier research shows that only 5-6 percent of total bank credit historically reaches SMEs.
Given the lack of detailed public data, it is reasonable to infer that the bulk of the N75 trillion still flows to:
– Large corporations
– Treasury operations
– Prime customers
– Big-ticket borrowers with government-linked contracts.
Experts warn that this reflects a financial system drifting away from the real economy, a trend Muda Yusuf describes as “worrisome and dangerous.”
2. Banks are also parking funds in government securities.
Commercial banks prioritized lending to the government by investing in T-bills, FGN Bonds, and OMO instruments, where returns are high and risk-free. Over the past two years, Nigerian banks have channeled N20.4 trillion into treasury bills, bonds, and other fixed-income instruments, reaping risk-free returns rather than funding productive ventures. This “securities trap” is profitable for banks but disastrous for the economy.
A government-backed 19–22 percent yield is more attractive than lending to an SME at 27-35 percent with a high probability of default.
3. FX revaluation effects and rollovers
Portions of the N75 trillion may not be new lending in the real sense but the result of regulatory reclassifications, rollovers, FX revaluation on foreign-currency loans, and large concentrated credit exposures. This creates the illusion of expanded credit without tangible productivity gains.
However, SMEs, which contribute 46.3 percent of GDP and employ millions, remain locked out of the credit system due to punitive interest rates, high collateral demands, lack of financial documentation, bureaucratic processes, and weak credit-scoring systems. Despite accounting for 97 percent of businesses and nearly 90 percent of informal jobs, SMEs receive only 5 percent of commercial bank lending. This is a structural failure. SMEs remain almost entirely disconnected from Nigeria’s celebrated “N75 trillion credit boom.”
Manufacturers’ 2025 results show turnover up 37.9 percent and profit swinging from a N116 billion loss to N2.5 trillion gain. But experts like Muda Yusuf and Clifford Egbomeade warn that these improvements are driven primarily by:
– Inflationary pricing adjustments, not increased production.
– Gains are also supported by exchange-rate stability.
– Reduced debt burden, not operational efficiency.
Nigeria risks mistaking nominal growth for real productivity.
Meanwhile, rising non-performing loans fueled by high interest rates, inflation, weakened consumer demand, and FX volatility have pushed some banks above the CBN’s 5 percent NPL ceiling, further restricting their willingness to lend, especially to SMEs.
Even the private-sector credit trend contradicts the headline figure. Throughout 2025, credit levels have shown repeated declines:
– February’s N77.3 trillion dropped to N76.3 trillion,
– N75.9 trillion in March,
– Followed by a temporary rebound to N78.1 trillion in April,
– May-August declined to N75.8 trillion.
These repeated drops reflect weakened appetite for borrowing, tighter bank lending, liquidity pressures, and borrower distress. A true credit boom does not move in this direction.
The Human Cost of an Economy without Productivity
The consequences of weak productivity are not abstract. They show up in hunger, jobs, poverty, life expectancy, and living standards. Below is where Nigeria’s crisis becomes undeniable.
– It is Not Just Rising, it is deepening
– According to the World Bank, 139 million Nigerians now live in poverty. That is six in ten Nigerians. No country with this scale of poverty can claim real economic progress.
SBM Intelligence, in a scathing review of the government’s economic reforms, noted that this administration of government has failed to lift Nigerians’ living standards, despite the loud claims of macroeconomic stability.
Life Expectancy in Nigeria Is Now the Lowest in the World
The UN’s 2025 Global Health Report ranked Nigeria’s life expectancy at 54.9 years, the worst globally, far below the world average of 73.7 years. This decline is attributed to:
– Insecurity
– Poor healthcare access
– Rising poverty
– Nutritional deficiencies
– Weak social welfare
A productive economy increases life expectancy; a collapsing one shortens it.
Hunger Is the Real Inflation Index
While official inflation reports show “stabilisation,” the lived reality says otherwise.
In the kitchens of Lagos, in the cries of hungry children, and in the struggles of market women, a harsher truth is spoken daily: Empty pots do not lie, and hunger, not percentages, is Nigeria’s real inflation index.
Debt Explosion Is Eroding Nigeria’s Future
Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office in 2023:
– Nigeria’s public debt surged from N33.3 trillion-N152.4 trillion. A staggering 348.6 percent increase in less than two years
Economies don’t collapse overnight; they deteriorate gradually. Nigeria is flashing every warning signal.
Unemployment Appears “Stable,” But Youth Joblessness Is Rising
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that while Nigeria’s headline unemployment rate has fallen to 4.3 percent, youth unemployment has risen to 6.5 percent. A youthful population with no jobs is a time bomb for the economy.
Financial System Delinking from the Real Economy
Nigeria’s financial system appears to be delinking from the real economy. High interest rates make loans too expensive, manufacturers cut borrowing, SMEs are excluded, banks channel funds into T-bills, NPLs rise, banks tighten further, and private-sector growth slows. This feedback loop is dangerous.
Monetary authorities have prioritised stabilization, achieving a firmer naira, temporary FX calm, and reduced speculative pressure, but at the cost of choking credit, suppressing investment, weakening job creation, and widening the disconnect between banks and the productive economy. The recovery, as Egbomeade notes, is “fragile and easily reversible.”
To reverse the trend, Nigeria must rebuild the credit pipeline. To break the cycle, three urgent reforms are needed:
1. The CBN should publish transparent, disaggregated credit data.
This must show credit allocation by firm size, region, sector, and performance.
2. Expand targeted credit guarantees for SMEs and manufacturers.
Deposit money banks and the government must strengthen SME and manufacturing credit channels through expanded guarantees.
3. Reduced collateral barriers and adopted alternative credit scoring, stronger BOI pipelines.
4. Incentives for real-sector lending through tax breaks and prudential relief.
5. Most importantly, interest rates must gradually fall to levels that support investment and production while maintaining FX stability. Credit cannot revive with 30-35 lending rates.
Nigeria’s N75 trillion private-sector credit figures may look impressive, but manufacturers have withdrawn, SMEs have little access, banks are risk-averse, NPLs are rising, the real sector is struggling, debt is exploding, Life expectancy is collapsing, hunger is spreading, productivity remains weak, and credit levels are trending downward. The real question is no longer how large the number is but who actually received it, what it financed, and what it produced. Until credit flows to production, industry, SMEs, and innovation, Nigeria will continue celebrating large numbers while the real economy gasps for oxygen. It is time to stop counting the trillions and start counting the impact.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos, can be reached via: [email protected]
Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) has established six committees to help strengthen and modernize the country’s broadcasting industry.
The committees will focus on content creation, skills development, digital transformation, sustainability, policy and commercial opportunities
The initiative aims to support industry growth and improve collaboration between broadcasters, regulators and media experts
The official launch recently, was led by Tony Akiotu, president, BON and attended by media professionals, program directors, former journalists and heads of specialized media organizations.
The event brought together several prominent figures in Nigeria’s media industry, including veteran broadcaster and trainer Bimbo Oloyede, Tony Uyah of M4S TV, Kingsley Uranta of Channels Television, Ismael Sani of Platinum TV and Ibrahim Shehu of Trust TV.
Together, they are expected to help drive innovation and support the growth of Nigeria’s broadcasting sector.
According to Akiotu, the committees are intended both to help shape industry policy and to provide a forum for dialogue between BON and broadcasting experts.
Akiotu said the ad hoc committees were intended to strengthen BON’s work and ensure that the umbrella body for Nigeria’s broadcasters played a more direct and meaningful role in developing the country’s broadcasting sector.
The six committees reflect the sector’s main priorities. The first focuses on collaboration and innovation to promote content creation.
The second is dedicated to training and talent development, while the third focuses on industry sustainability by improving the sector’s long-term financial viability.
A fourth committee will focus on digital transformation and work with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on regulatory issues.
The remaining two committees will oversee public policy advocacy and the development of sports and commercial rights to help broadcasters increase revenue and attract more investment. Together, the committees are expected to guide BON’s efforts to modernize and strengthen Nigeria’s broadcasting industry.
The committees, chaired by members of BON’s General Assembly and supported by the organization’s Secretariat, have an initial 12-month mandate that may be renewed if necessary.
They are required to submit a progress report within three months and implement approved recommendations within the following six months.
The arrangement is intended to ensure close oversight and the timely implementation of their work.
Akiotu also reminded committee members that Nigeria pioneered television broadcasting in Africa and urged them to carry out their work with greater effectiveness and efficiency.
Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) says it is investigating about 34 tertiary institutions over allegations that they failed to refund students whose tuition fees were paid twice under the Federal Government’s student loan scheme.
The Managing Director of NELFUND, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this during an interview on Arise Television.
Sawyerr said the agency had deployed a five-member investigative team, including operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and internal auditors, to examine the allegations.
According to him, the investigation was prompted by numerous complaints received from affected students.
“As of right now, there are 34 institutions that we are looking at closely with respect to this issue,” he said.
Sawyerr explained that the double payment issue arose because President Bola Tinubu directed that the student loan scheme commence in the middle of an academic session instead of at the beginning.
He said the decision compelled many students to pay their tuition fees to meet registration deadlines while awaiting approval of their loan applications.
“What happened is that a lot of schools got double payment; some from the students and some from us,” he said.
“The refund process is entirely out of our hands. It is the recipient of the double payments that is obliged to make refunds to the students.”
The NELFUND boss noted that many students had borrowed money from family members, friends and other sources to pay their tuition with the expectation of receiving refunds once the loans were disbursed.
He said while some institutions had promptly refunded affected students, others had failed to do so.
“Some have been very good at this. Others haven’t been so good at it,” Sawyerr said.
“I reserve judgement on the intentionality around it because, for some of them, they just didn’t have the process to make refunds.”
Sawyerr disclosed that NELFUND was exploring a tokenised payment system that would enable students to authorise tuition payments directly to their institutions, thereby reducing the likelihood of duplicate payments.
He said the agency deliberately chose not to disburse tuition loans directly to students to minimise the risk of fund diversion.
“Paying the funds to the students could really lead to the temptation for them to divert and do other things,” he said.
The managing director, however, acknowledged that NELFUND lacked the statutory powers to compel institutions to refund students or prosecute officials found culpable.
He added that many frustrated students had submitted complaints not only to NELFUND but also to anti-corruption agencies, including the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
Sawyerr also expressed concern over increases in tuition fees by some institutions following the introduction of the student loan scheme.
He said NELFUND had declined to pay institutions that increased their tuition fees beyond acceptable levels.
“Some schools, because they get paid easily, started to put up their fees. We refused, point blank, to pay institutions who had hiked their fees beyond a certain level,” he said.
He reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to investigating every reported irregularity and strengthening the implementation of the student loan programme through continuous monitoring and internal reviews.
Broadcasting
Obi, NDC Presidential Candidate Faces N50Bn Defamation Claim over Alleged Podcast Remark
Abayomi Arabambi, national vice chairman (South-West) of the Labour Party, has demanded a public apology, a retraction, and N50 billion in damages from Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), over an alleged defamatory statement made during a podcast interview.
The demand was contained in a letter issued by the law firm Neplus Ultra Attorneys and signed by Anderson U. Asemota, Peter O. Asimegbe, and Stanley C. Eziefulle on behalf of Arabambi.
According to the letter, the legal dispute arose from comments allegedly made by Obi during the interview, where he reportedly stated that Arabambi “does not have an address.”
Arabambi’s legal team described the statement as false, malicious, and defamatory, arguing that it portrayed their client as a faceless individual without legitimacy, credibility, or standing in public life.
The lawyers further claimed that the interview was widely circulated on television stations and digital platforms, exposing Arabambi to public ridicule and damaging his reputation.
“Our client has had a known residential and business address, maintains professional and political affiliations within Nigeria, and has never been a person whose whereabouts or identity were unknown,” the letter stated.
The legal team maintained that the alleged publication caused embarrassment and harmed Arabambi’s public image and political standing.
As part of their demands, the lawyers called for an unreserved public apology to be aired on national television, published on Obi’s verified social media platforms, and carried as full-page apologies in national newspapers.
They also demanded the payment of N50 billion as compensation for the alleged injury to Arabambi’s reputation, dignity, political standing, and public image.
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