There are indications that commercial banks and merchant banks are increasingly depending on the Central Bank of Nigeria for liquidity as their borrowing from the apex bank has intensified in the last eight months of 2023. Commercial banks and merchant banks access lending from the apex bank using the Standing Lending Facility (SLF) window and deposit cash with the apex bank using the Standing Deposit Facility window(SDF). The CBN data showed that the first quarter figure, which stood at N4.95tn, was higher than the half-year data for 2022. The monthly breakdown revealed that commercial banks and merchant banks in January borrowed N528.16bn from the CBN but the figure dropped to N453.7bn in February 2023. However, the CBN data showed a N590.29bn and N235.06bn borrowing for May and June 2023.
