Nigerian Bank Nigeria CBN Central Bank Of Nigeria – Skye Bank Posts Fourth Quarter Loss Due To Bad Loans

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Nigeria’s Skye Bank posted a N12.63 billion ($84.70 million) pretax loss in the fourth quarter to September 30, compared with a pretax profit of N20.42 billion in the same period last year.

Gross earnings at the bank rose 36 per cent to N101.44 billion from N74.61 billion a year earlier, it said in a filing to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The medium-sized bank said in a forecast in August it expected pretax profit for the period to rise five per cent to N21.7 billion and gross earnings to climb 25 per cent toN98.61 billion.

The bank was one of the 14 lenders given the all-clear by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which between August 14, and October 2, sacked the senior management of eight banks after an audit of the 24 banks in sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy showed 10 of them were undercapitalised and posed a systemic risk.

The Central Bank has injected N620 billion into the banking system since mid-August, bailing out nine of the 10 banks facing liquidity problems.

Banks’ losses

A number of Nigerian banks have recorded a drop in pretax profit in quarterly results so far published after the regulator directed them to make full disclosures of their profit and loss accounts.

The CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi, has made cleaning up the banking system in Africa’s biggest energy industry his top priority since assuming office in June.

The loans the struggling banks racked up included credit to speculators on a stock market which fell 60 per cent over the past year and unsecured financing to fuel importers who saw oil prices halve over the same period.

Mr. Sanusi said on Tuesday he hopes legislation will be in place by the end of the year for an asset management firm, which could absorb the N400 billion in bad loans.

Nigerian Bank Nigeria CBN Central Bank Of Nigeria, Skye Bank Plc