Daily Watch – Huggies to build new factory in Lagos, Power sector sheds ₦69.1b in one month

The total non-performing loans of Nigerian banks declined to ₦1.79 trillion in 2018. According to CBN data, this amount was lower than the ₦2.36 trillion non-performing loans recorded in 2017 when gross loans in the banking sector were ₦15.96 trillion. The regulator said that total loans were ₦15.35 trillion as at the end of 2018, while loans after specific provisions were ₦13.56 trillion. Meanwhile, Ahmed Kuru, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, AMCON has said the total eligible bank assets of AMCON portfolio in the hands of debtors stood at ₦740 billion.

American multinational personal care company and manufacturer of Huggies and Kotex brands of disposable diapers and baby wipes, Kimberly-Clark, has said it will close its Lagos factory in Q2 and build a new factory in its place. The firm indicated that strong growth in the demand for its products had necessitated the decision to open a new factory with enhanced technology and capabilities. It, however, regretted the decision, which it said has impact on their workforce, as about 60 permanent employees have been made redundant. 

The use of interbank instant payments on USSD platforms by bank customers received a significant boost in 2018, growing by 35 percent in one year. In 2017, instant transfers worth ₦92.4 million were carried using the USSD codes of various banks in the country, which grew to ₦261.7 million in 2018, a new report on interbank instant payment published by Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme has shown. However, mobile apps were mostly used by bank customers to carry out interbank money transfer as the report stated that transactions valued at ₦324.3 million were conducted on mobile apps in 2018. According to the report, there is diminishing interest in transactions on other instant payment platforms like bank tellers, Internet banking, Automated Teller Machine, vendor merchants, among others.

Nigeria’s power sector lost a total of ₦69.1 billion between January and February 2019 amid continuous challenges in the industry. According to data from the Advisory Power Team, insufficient gas supply to power generation plants and inadequate distribution and transmission infrastructure are some of the factors responsible for the loss. On 19 February, a total of 2,332.95 megawatts of electricity was not generated due to unavailability of gas, while 32.5MW/h of power was not generated because of inadequate transmission infrastructure. 543MW was not generated due to high frequency resulting from unavailability of distribution infrastructure. The average energy sent out in the sector that day was 4,408MW-hour/hour, up by 3.28MWh/h from the previous day’s figure, losing an estimated ₦1.468 billion due to insufficient gas supply, distribution infrastructure and transmission infrastructure.