Africa-Press – Mozambique. More than half of the credit granted by Mozambique’s Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI) was in default at the end of the first quarter of 2024, and most other banks in the country also had non-performing loan (NPL) ratios above the 5% limit recommended by the central bank.
In the Bank of Mozambique’s report on the Prudential and Economic-Financial Indicators for the first quarter, to which Lusa had access on Monday, BNI – which is on the central bank’s list of institutions with fewer than 1,000 clients – ended the period with an NPL ratio of 52.40% (against 43.98% at the end of previous quarter) and an NPL coverage ratio that had slipped to 69.29%.
The 15 or so commercial banks on the central bank’s list are followed by Ecobank, with an NPL ratio of 33.88%, and Moza Banco, with a ratio of 19.12%.
From the list released by the central bank, based on data provided by the financial institutions themselves, United Bank for Africa (UBA), First National Bank (FNB), Standard Bank and First Capital Bank (FCB) have NPL ratios below the recommended ceiling, at 0.84%, 2.62%, 2.66% and 3.98% respectively.
Millennium BIM, one of the country’s largest banks, controlled by Portugal’s BCP, saw its NPL ratio fall in the last quarter, to 4.53%.
The governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogério Lucas Zandamela, said at the end of last year that the country’s banking sector is “solid and well capitalised” but warned that non-performing loans remain an issue.
“The ratio of non-performing loans remains at relatively high levels,” he said at the time, noting that the overall ratio was still as high as 9.1% at end-September, compared to 9.3% in the same month of the previous year.
“The nation’s banking sector remains solid and well capitalised, with the solvency ratio standing at 24.0% in September this year [2023], corresponding to 12.0 percentage points above the regulatory minimum,” Zandamela pointed out.
Data from the central bank indicates that 15 commercial banks and 12 microbanks operate in Mozambique, as well as credit cooperatives and savings and credit organisations, among other institutions.
For More News And Analysis About Mozambique Follow Africa-Press
