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
Davido, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Karl Toriola, Others To Be Honoured At The Most Influential People of African Descent Awards In Lagos
Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) is excited to announce the Lagos Diaspora Experience 2025, a week-long celebration of African art, culture, innovation, and connection, culminating in the End of the Year Awards & Celebration on Sunday, December 21st, 2025, in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Most Influential People of African Descent Awards
This historic occasion marks the first time the world-famous Most Influential 100 Recognition & Awards Ceremony—traditionally held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)—will be hosted in Lagos, Nigeria.
The week will feature events such as Diaspora Day at the Fela Exhibition (Afrobeat Meets Diaspora), Cultural Heritage Day, and Business Leadership Luncheons, all culminating in the awards celebration.
The evening will honor the Best & Brightest of the Year, recognizing exceptional individuals and institutions whose work has advanced Global African Achievement and Black Excellence across business, government, media, culture, and technology.
Key Recognitions for 2025
– Governor of the Year & City of the Year: His Excellency Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State, honored alongside Lagos as City of the Year for its global leadership in culture, innovation, tourism, and diaspora engagement.
– Her Excellency Hannatu Musa Musawa, Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, will be honoured as Minister of the Year for her contribution to the creative economy’s role in nation branding and cultural diplomacy.
– Most Influential Woman of the Year: Olorì Atúwàtse III, Queen Consort of the Warri Kingdom
– Most Influential Man of the Year: Adewale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive, OANDO
– CEO of the Year: Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria; who will deliver a keynote address, recognized for his transformative leadership and impact on Nigeria’s telecommunications and digital economy.
Others include; Karl Toriola of MTN as CEO of the year, Uche Pedro of Bella Naija as Lifestyle Personality Of The Year, Ojy Okpe of Artise News as Most Influential News Anchor Of The Year, Stephanie Busari as Media Executive of the Year, Kayode Okikiolu as Pressman of the year, Davido as Artist of the year and several others.
In celebrating this year’s honorees, Michael Ehindero, Managing Director, Pernod Ricard Nigeria, owners of Martell Cognac, who emerged as Brand Of The Year expressed deep appreciation for the brand’s continued global recognition, saying: “It’s a great reward for the team who’s delivered Martell excellently in Nigeria over the years.
“We say thank you to the teams, we say thank you to our consumers and we say thank you to MIPAD.
“Martell has a lot of promising experiences in the years to come in Nigeria and with this we invite you over to Nigeria to experience Detty December”.
The ceremony will also celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2025 Honorees, alongside past Nigerian honorees who were unable to attend their year of recognition in New York.
“For the first time, we’re bringing our world-famous recognition platform home to celebrate excellence within the Global Africa Family — right here in Lagos,” said Kamil Olufowobi, Founder & Chairman of MIPAD. “This is more than an event; it’s a movement uniting the best of us — connecting, collaborating, and working together to change the world.”
Event Details
📍 Lagos, Nigeria
– Friday, Dec 19 – #DettyDec Diaspora Day at Fela Exhibition FREE
– Sunday, Dec 21 – End of Year Recognition & Award Ceremony STRICTLY BY INVITATION
🎟️ RSVP: https://rsvp.oakenevents.com/mipad
Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has called for urgent adoption of advanced digital protections after blocking seven piracy sites amid escalating online threats to Nollywood content.
The call was made during a webinar hosted by Greychapel Legal titled “Clicks, Streams, and Copyright: Who Owns Nollywood’s Digital Future?”, which brought together filmmakers, regulators, entertainment lawyers and media strategists to examine how content ownership and copyright enforcement are being reshaped by the digital age.
Lynda Alphaeus, director and head of the NCC Lagos Office, said the Commission has intensified its efforts to combat piracy across digital channels and is upgrading its operations to meet emerging threats.
According to her, Nigeria’s new Copyright Act was deliberately updated to strengthen creators’ rights amid the explosion of online distribution.
“NCC has worked, and is still working tirelessly to adapt Nigeria’s legal framework to cope with digital distribution challenges. We now have the power to block networks publishing illegal content, and we have already blocked seven websites distributing pirated Nigerian works,” Alphaeus said.
She revealed that the Commission has established a special taskforce known as the STOP Unit to coordinate anti-piracy operations online, alongside new awareness campaigns targeting local markets and schools to educate content creators and the public on copyright obligations.
Alphaeus urged filmmakers and producers to take ownership of their digital safety by deploying available technological protections to safeguard their intellectual property.
She explained that tools such as encryption help prevent unauthorised copying, blockchain technology offers immutable proof of ownership, digital watermarking allows creators to trace illegal uploads, while cloud security and regular offline backups protect creative files before they reach the market.
While noting that copyright in Nigeria does not legally require registration, she stressed that registering one’s work strengthens protection and provides legal presumptions that can be vital in enforcement.
“Whatever you register is presumed to be yours until proven otherwise,” she said, urging creators to invest in copyright knowledge as part of their business strategy.
Other speakers at the webinar reinforced the urgency of protecting Nollywood’s digital assets.
James Omokwe, film director, noted that while streaming platforms have created unprecedented opportunities for visibility and monetisation, they have also opened new vectors for intellectual property theft and unauthorised redistribution.
Solafunmi Laelle, media strategist, added that audience data, which streaming platforms rely heavily on, will increasingly determine leverage and value in film licensing negotiations.
According to her, creators who lose control of their intellectual property, whether through piracy or unfavourable contracts, also lose access to valuable data that could shape their long-term earnings.
Nky Ofeimun, entertainment lawyer, emphasised the need for creators to understand the contractual implications of ownership, platform exclusivity, and reversion rights.
She noted that many filmmakers still underestimate how quickly digital copies can be illegally duplicated or uploaded once control is lost.
The panelists agreed that as Nollywood deepens its digital footprint, piracy will continue to evolve and become more sophisticated.
They stressed that the industry must respond with equally sophisticated tools, stronger contract negotiation, and improved education around copyright.
Globacom, just introduced four brand new movies on its premium entertainment platform, Glo TV, and they are completely free for all subscribers. The company says the release marks another major step in its mission to enrich digital entertainment for millions of viewers across the country.
In a statement from Lagos on Wednesday, Globacom explained that the new titles feature some of Africa’s most celebrated actors and filmmakers, offering a colorful mix of romance, comedy, drama, culture, and emotional storytelling. The lineup includes Johnny Just Come (JJC), Eko Vibes, Bound, and Shifting Desire.
“Each of these movies was chosen to spotlight diverse African stories while delivering world class entertainment unavailable in cinemas, on YouTube, or on any other streaming service. Viewers do not need any subscription or extra payment. Access is completely free,” the company said.
Leading the pack is Shifting Desire, featuring Lilian Afegbai and veteran actor Majid Michel. The film is a gripping romantic drama that dives into marriage, intimacy, betrayal, healing, and the emotional journey of a couple using therapy to rebuild trust. Shifting Desire premiered on Glo TV on December 2 and is already streaming for free.
Johnny Just Come (JJC), starring Patience Ozokwor and Nancy Isime, delivers a hilarious cultural crossover story about an American man trying to navigate love and marriage in an African household. The movie explores themes of identity, family, culture, and coexistence in a warm and relatable way.
The third title, Bound, starring Rita Dominic and Eyinna Nwigwe, is a thought-provoking family drama that follows a successful career woman confronting long hidden personal struggles and the impact on her relationship. The film showcases powerful performances from some of Nollywood’s finest.
Rounding out the collection is Eko Vibes, featuring Broda Shaggi, Josh2Funny, and Nkechi Blessing. The movie captures the energy and hustle of Lagos youth culture, spotlighting ambition, humor, and the vibrant spirit of young people chasing success in the city.
Globacom noted that the new releases reinforce its commitment to delivering original African content at the highest quality. “With these exclusive titles, Glo TV is redefining digital entertainment in Nigeria by offering fresh, premium movies not available anywhere else. We remain committed to growing our catalog with rich African stories that celebrate creativity at its best,” the company added.
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