Yemisi Izuora
FBN Holdings Plc is taking positive steps to crash its Non-Performing Loan, NPL, which stood at over 25.2 percent in the first quarter of 2017.
Speaking at the bank’s Facts Behind The Figure presentation on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, the Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc, Mr. Uke Eke, said with acceleration of recovery of the impaired accounts, one out of the five major accounts that constitute its biggest NPL burden would drop off by the end of second quarter (Q2’17), leading to achievement of less than 20 percent NPL ratio target in 2017.
This, according to him, would be followed by resolution of the $500 million NPL belonging to Atlantic Energy, the second major account.
“If you take off these five accounts, NPL concern will be taken off. That is why we have decelerated loan provisioning. This gives us the hope that we will achieve the projected NPL ratio,” he said.
He noted that besides the legacy issue the bank is dealing with, no fresh NPL is forming on its books.
Eke stated that bank is committed to completely cleaning up its loan book within the next two years as it plans to bring down its Non-performing Loan, NPL, ratio to single digit in 2019. The bank has the highest NPL in the banking industry at about 25.2 percent in the first quarter 2017.
In line with this commitment, he said: “the bank has appointed a Board Oversight Committee charged with the function of monitoring the bank’s loan book and has made over N345 billion loan provisions in the last two years.”