The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently released the Q1 report. You can download it here.

I was about to summarize it but it seems that Business Day Online did a good job. Here are excerpts of their report.
For instance, in the financial sector, the value of money market assets increased, following largely the rise in bankers’ acceptances. Data indicated growth in monetary aggregates. Broad money supply (M2) and narrow money supply (M1) rose by 34.8 and 40.2 percent to N6.4trillion and N3.5trilion respectively, compared with the increase of 7.9 and 11.9 percent in the preceding quarter. The rise in M2 was attributed to the increase in foreign assets (net), domestic credit and other assets (net) of the banking system. Over the level at end-December 2007, M2 grew by 34.8 percent, compared with the indicative benchmark of 22.9 percent for fiscal 2008.

At N2.9trillion, aggregate banking system credit (net) to the domestic economy rose by 35.8 percent in the first quarter of 2008, compared with the increase of 52.4 percent in the preceding quarter.

The development reflected the increase in claims on the private sector during the period.

Banking system’s credit (net) to the Federal Government declined by 5 percent to N3.05trillion, compared with the decline of 5.6 percent in the preceding quarter.

The fall in the review quarter was attributed to the decline in Central Bank of Nigeria CBN claims on the Federal Government.

Banking system’s credit to the private sector rose by 18.1 percent to N5.9trillion, compared with the increase of 21.5 percent in the preceding quarter. The rise reflected wholly the 20.8 percent increase in deposit money banks’ (DMBs) claims on the private sector

At N8.1billion, foreign assets (net) of the banking system rose by 10.4 percent, compared with the increase of 5.9 percent in the preceding quarter. The development was attributed to the 10.3 and 11.3 percent increase in the CBN and DMBs’ holdings, respectively.

Quasi money rose by 28.6 percent to N2.8trillion, compared with the increase of 3.7 percent in the preceding quarter. The development was attributed to the increase in all the components namely; time, savings and foreign currency deposits of the DMBs during the quarter. Other assets (net) of the banking system rose by 3percent to N4.5 trillion, in contrast to the decline of 20.3 percent in the preceding quarter. The rise reflected largely the increase in unclassified assets of the DMBs during the quarter.

At N891.8 billion, currency in circulation fell by 7.2 percent in March, 2008 from the level in December 2007. The fall was traceable largely to the decline of 7.7 percent in currency outside the banking system during the period.

Total deposits at the CBN amounted to N4.8 trillion, indicating an increase of 8.9 percent over the level in the preceding quarter. The development was attributed to the 9 and 16.4 percent rise in both the Federal Government and deposit money banks’ (DMBs) deposits, respectively.

Also, the banking sector was not left out. Available data indicated mixed developments in banks’ deposit and lending rates in the first quarter of 2008. With the exception of the average savings deposits and seven-day savings rates which fell by 0.26 and 0.16 percentage points to 2.97 and 5.38 percent, respectively, all other rates on deposits of various maturities rose from a range of 7.75 – 9.90 percent in the preceding quarter to 9.48 – 10.71 percent.

Also, the average prime and maximum lending rates fell by 0.44 and 0.07 percentage points to 16.05 and 18.17 percent, respectively. Consequently, the spread between the weighted average deposit and maximum lending rates widened from 15.01 percentage points in the preceding quarter to 15.20 percentage points. On the other hand, the margin between the average savings deposit and maximum lending rates narrowed from 10.77 percentage points in the preceding quarter to 10.31 percentage points. The increase in interest rates during the review quarter was attributed to the upward review of the MPR in December, 2007.

At the inter-bank call segment, the weighted average rate, which was 8.25 in the preceding quarter, rose to 10.30 percent, reflecting the liquidity squeeze in the inter-bank funds market.

What of the money market? With tight liquidity conditions in the money market, following the upward review of the MPR from 9.0 to 9.5 percent in December, 2007, deposit money banks (DMBs) accessed the CBN lending facility more frequently to square up short-term positions. Consequently, a cumulative sum of N8.6trillion was granted to DMBs on overnight basis in the review period, compared with N523.91 billion in the preceding quarter.

The value of money market assets outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2008 increased by 18.7 percent to N2.6trillion, compared with the increase of 5.8 percent in the preceding quarter.

Available data indicated that total assets/liabilities of the DMBs amounted to N13.3trillion, representing an increase of 32.5 percent over the level in the preceding quarter. The development was attributed largely to the rise in claims on the private sector.

Funds, which were sourced mainly from demand deposit, time, savings and foreign currency deposits, were used mainly for acquisition of unclassified assets and extension of credit to the private sector.

At N7.2trillion, credit to the domestic economy rose by 21.0 percent over the level in the preceding quarter. The increase in credit during the quarter was attributed largely to the 21.8 percent rise in claims on Federal Government (net) during the period.

Central Bank’s credit to the DMBs fell by 2.9 percent to N29.0 billion in the review quarter.

Total specified liquid assets of the DMBs stood at N3.8trillion, representing 49.6 percent of their total current liabilities. At that level, the liquidity ratio rose by 4.9 percentage points over the preceding quarter’s level. This level of specified liquid assets was 9.6 percentage points above the stipulated minimum ratio of 40 percent for fiscal 2008. The loans-to-deposit ratio fell by 9.4 percentage points below the level in the preceding quarter, and was 6.1 percentage points below the prescribed minimum target of 80.0 per cent.

Total federally-collected revenue during the first quarter of 2008 stood at N1.8trillion, representing an increase of 25.2 and 11.2 percent over the proportionate budget estimate and the preceding quarter’s level, respectively. At N1.5trillion, oil receipts which constituted 83.3 percent of the total, increased by 33.2 and 23.1 percent over the budget estimate and the level in the preceding quarter, respectively. The rise in oil receipts relative to the budget estimate was attributed to the persistent rise in oil prices at the international oil market during the review period. However, non-oil receipts, at N315.06 billion or 16.7 percent of the total, were lower than the receipts in the preceding quarter and the budget estimate by 25.0 and 3.8 percent, respectively. The decline in non-oil receipts during the period was attributed largely to the fall in independent revenue of the Federal Government and Companies Income Tax (CIT).