The total credit from banks to the economy recorded a decline of N455bn from N15.58tn as of the end of the third quarter of last year to N15.1tn in the fourth quarter.
This is contained in the banking sector report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.
The NBS in the report also said the total number of members of staff in banks increased by 1.8 per cent from 102,821 in the third quarter of 2018 to 104,669 in the fourth quarter.
It said during the fourth quarter of last year, the sector recorded 616,528,697 transactions valued at N39.15tn through electronic payment confirmation.
The report stated that the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System Instant Payments transactions dominated the volume of transactions as it recorded 228,209,423 transactions valued at N23.57tn during the fourth quarter of last year.
A breakdown of credit to the private sector showed that oil and gas with N3.55tn received the highest credit allocation during the period under review.
This was followed by the manufacturing sector with total loans of N2.23tn.
It read in part, โIn terms of credit to the private sector, the total value of credit allocated by the banks stood at N15.13tn as at Q4, 2018.
โOil and gas and manufacturing sectors got credit allocation of N3.55tn and N2.23tn to record the highest credit allocation as at the period under review.
โAs at Q4, 2018, the total number of banksโ members of staff increased by 1.80 per cent quarter on quarter from 102,821in Q3 2018 to 104,669.โ
Based on the analysis of the report, the agricultural sector received N610.14bn, power and energy, N403.37bn; construction, N614.5bn; trade and general commerce, N1.07tn; while credit to the government was put at N1.36tn.
In the same vein, the real estate sector received a total loan of N622.77bn; finance, insurance and capital market, N1.1tn; education, N57.25bn; Information and Communications Technology N545.49bn; transportation and storage, N289.85bn; while other sectors got N339.73bn.
