Central Bank of Nigeria publishes Q1 2025 credit conditions survey reporting higher unsecured and corporate credit availability and wider lending spreads

The Central Bank of Nigeria released its Q1 2025 Credit Conditions Survey, summarising lenders’ reported changes in credit supply, demand, loan approvals, pricing and defaults across secured and unsecured household lending and corporate segments. Lenders reported increased credit availability for unsecured and corporate lending, alongside a decline in secured lending to households, while demand rose for secured and corporate credit but fell for unsecured lending. The report links the increase in unsecured credit availability to lenders’ market share objectives, and attributes changes in corporate and secured household credit availability primarily to the economic outlook. Demand was reported to have increased across most lending types, with exceptions including secured mortgage or re-mortgage lending and unsecured credit card lending to households, while inventory finance was highlighted as a major driver of the positive change in corporate credit demand. Respondents also reported tightened credit scoring criteria for secured and unsecured lending, an increased proportion of loan approvals for secured and corporate lending, and a decrease for unsecured lending. Lending spreads relative to the Monetary Policy Rate were reported to have widened for secured and unsecured household lending and for most corporate lending types, except Other Financial Corporations where spreads reportedly narrowed; default rates were lower for secured and unsecured lending, while corporate defaults were mixed, with lower rates for small businesses and medium private non-financial corporations but higher rates for large private non-financial corporations and Other Financial Corporations.