Nigeria Bank Sees Faster Growth

Nigeria’s biggest bank by revenue expects lending to accelerate and bad debts to drop this year as growth in Africa’s largest economy picks up, Bloomberg reported. “The current macro environment is supportive of loan growth,” Adesola Adeduntan, the chief executive officer of FBN Holdings Plc’s First Bank of Nigeria, said in an interview in Lagos. After expanding less than 10% in 2017, growth in the company’s loan book will be “much better” than the second half of last year, when it already started showing signs of improvement, he said. Non-performing loans as a percentage of total credit will “continue to trend downward” after declining to 20% in the nine months through September from 26% in 2016, helped by recoveries and write-offs, Adeduntan said. The bank is targeting an “improved performance” in revenue and profit in 2018, he said. FBN is seeking to capitalize on an improved economic outlook in the continent’s biggest oil producer by “aggressively” rolling out agency banking this year and strengthening digital platforms to boost fee and commission income, Adeduntan said.