The year 2024 was marked by improved profitability for most commercial banks in the country, marked by a steep increase in interest income on the back of a high-interest rate environment, as well as gains from repriced FX assets.
Commercial banks, in a bid to leverage the high interest rate, deployed more funds towards customer loans while leveraging high-yielding fixed income instruments and interbank placements.
The CBN raised the monetary policy rate by 800bps to 27.5% in 2024, thereby spurring higher fixed income yields and cost of capital.