A financial analyst, Mr. Abiodun Adedipe, has described the banking sector in Nigeria as highly vulnerable to the vagaries of the economy, due to the transmission effects of the current recession on bank customers and its direct impact on banking institutions as business entities.
Adedipe said, typically, the business cycle had more impact on banks, especially on their lending operations, adding that the ultimate aim of lending was the collection of the loans and other facilities granted along with the services by the borrowing customers.
He stressed that the state of the economy had great impact on the lending activities of banks and the safety of risk assets. Adedipe said, “For instance, an economy in boom necessarily has recession in its trajectory much as a state of recession presages recovery.” Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics has said it is set to release no fewer than 162 reports on different sectors of the economy this year.
According to the 2017 tentative data, the NBS is expected to release 34 data in the first quarter. Analysis of the calendar shows that the bureau released data on consumer price index and inflation, price watch on diesel, petrol and kerosene. Other items on the calendar are telecommunications sector data, monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee disbursements, gross domestic product and capital importation in the quarter.
Also included in the statistics are foreign trade merchandise, airline and passenger travel, multiple indicator cluster survey and report on women and children. Unemployment and under-employment watch, labour productivity report and online recruitment service report are also listed.
The bureau is expected to release 43 data in the second quarter. The data will focus mainly on statistics on corruption, motor vehicles, road accidents, energy and environmental statistics. It will also focus on airline and passage travel data in addition to petroleum products and inflation reports.
In the third quarter, the bureau will release 38 data ranging from financial services data, household consumption expenditure, port activities, national agriculture sample survey and solid mineral to the mining sector survey.
However, the bureau will be releasing 47 reports in the last quarter, which will be the highest data in the year. It will also be releasing social statistics report for 2016, demographic statistics bulletin and 2016 statistical report on men and women, among others.
The NBS will also release monthly reports on FACC disbursements, consumer price index and inflation reports as well as price watch on diesel, petrol and kerosene.
