The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in a recent letter, has announced the reduction of the Loan-to-Deposit Ratio (LDR) of commercial banks from 75 percent to 50 percent, indicating a decline of 15 percentage points. The LDR, a tool used by the CBN to influence the lending behaviour of commercial banks, is the ratio of a bank’s total loans to its total deposits. A low LDR means banks will lend out smaller portions of its deposits, and vice versa. The central bank’s move to reduce the value of LDR is part of its approach to maintain monetary tightening in the economy.

According to the NBS latest labour survey, a total of 617,503 individuals were subjected to forced labour in their current job in 2022. This translates to a prevalence rate of 5.2 out of every 1000 individuals. Disaggrageting forced labour by gender, 451,300 were male and 166,203 were female, indicating a higher likelihood of men falling victims of forced labour than women. Age-wise distribution shows 191,418 individuals fall within the 18-29 age group, 317,052 in 30-49 age group, and 99,391 in the age group above 50 years. Urban areas exhibit a higher prevalence rate of 6.0% compared to a 4.7% in the rural area with 270,546 individuals affected in the urban areas and 346,958 in the rural areas.

According to the Nigeria Electricity Report for Q4 2023, revenue collected by the DISCOs during the period was N294.95 billion, an increase from N260.16 billion in Q3 2023. The increment in revenue is associated with two factors – an increase in customers and electricity supply. The number of customers grew by 3.4% to 12.12 million in Q4 2023 from 11.71 million in Q3 2023. Likewise, the electricity supply grew by 12.2% to 6,432. (Gwh) in Q4 2023 from 5,732 (Gwh) in the previous quarter. However, the rate of increase in revenue generation is likely to be hampered by low metering rates. As of Q4 2023, 46% of the 12.12 million customers are metered. Recently, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved a new tariff affecting only Band A.

The latest report on the Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) in Nigeria by the NBS shows that the national average cost of a healthy diet rose to N938 per day in February 2024, representing an increase of N80 from the previous month. The cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) is the most affordable combination of locally available food items that meet the global food dietary guidelines. This implies that a Nigerian would need to spend N938 for a healthy diet.

In its recent Money and Credit statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that bank’s credit to the private sector increased month-on-month (MoM) by 5.99 percent from N76.29 trillion in January 2024 to N80.86 trillion in February 2024. Year-on-Year, this represents a N39.11 trillion (93.67 percent) percent increase from N41.75 trillion recorded in February 2023. The data further shows that credit to the government fell by 6.2 percent from N36.17 trillion in January 2024 to N33.92 trillion in February 2024.