The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released its 2024 financial statements.
The highlights of the results show the particularly remarkable feat of a N165bn surplus from a position of over a trillion naira deficit in the previous year.
The external reserves also moved upward from 36.6bn to 38.8bn within the same period.
While loans and receivables reduced significantly, expenses associated with liquidity management took an upward swing. In specific terms, the management expenses rose from N1.5 trn in 2023 to N4.5trn in 2024 while loans and receivables reduced from N16.1trn to N11.9trn
The statements also reveal that the bank’s loss on settled derivative contracts more than doubled from N6.3 trn to N13.9trn due to the large volume of such contracts inherited from the previous dispensation which were cleared during the year.
According to the report other operating expenses were also reasonably well -managed with better cost-consciousness.
These positive results were not mere happenstance but arose from several factors including the bank’s redirection from direct intervention funding, determined and sustained cuts in wasteful tendencies, the increased confidence of investors inspired by the disciplined and professional disposition of the bank’s current leadership.