Money and credit statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that credit to the private sector rose by N1.88 trillion, to N74.41 trillion in October 2025, from N72.53 trillion in September.
The increase which represents a month-on-month growth of 2.60 per cent, the strongest positive movement so far in 2025, follows the cut in Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points to 27 per cent, by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its September 2025 meeting.
The September 2025 MPR cut was the first policy rate reduction since 2020, as inflation began to ease and foreign exchange conditions improved.
At its November 2025 meeting, the MPC held the MPR at 27 per cent but tweaked the corridor around the rate to discourage banks from simply parking liquidity with the CBN.
On a year-on-year basis, credit to the private sector increased only slightly from N74.07 trillion in October 2024 to N74.41 trillion in October 2025, representing an increase of N0.34 trillion, or 0.46 per cent.
This shows that while the stock of private credit is broadly back to where it was a year earlier, the real story is the short-term rebound that followed the September rate cut.
Across 2025, the pattern of private sector credit has been irregular rather than steadily expansionary. It started the year at N77.38 trillion in January, slipped to N76.26 trillion in February and N75.98 trillion in March, then recovered to N78.07 trillion in April.
It softened again to N77.97 trillion in May and N76.13 trillion in June, hovered around N75.88 trillion in August, then dropped sharply to N72.53 trillion in September before the October bounce to N74.41 trillion.
Between January and February, private credit fell by about N1.12 trillion, a decline of 1.45 per cent. It dipped again in March, although by a much smaller N0.28 trillion, or 0.36 per cent. April then delivered a strong rebound, with credit rising by about N2.09 trillion or 2.75 per cent, pushing the stock back above N78 trillion.
From April to June, the direction turned down again. Credit fell slightly in May, then more sharply in June, losing about N1.84 trillion between May and June. By June, private credit stood at N76.13 trillion, below January’s level despite rising prices and nominal incomes.
There is a gap in the series for July, but by August, private credit was N75.88 trillion, only marginally below June. The more notable movement came in September, when credit dropped by about N3.36 trillion from August, a fall of 4.42%. That slump set the stage for the October recovery.
Tight monetary conditions and liquidity swings held back private credit for much of the year, while the September rate cut appears to have triggered a fresh but still fragile lending impulse in October.
The October gain of N1.88 trillion therefore marks a turning point after months of decline.
Meanwhile, total domestic credit, which combines credit to government and credit to the private sector, rose from N96.69 trillion in September to N99.20 trillion in October 2025. That represents an increase of about N2.51 trillion, or 2.60 per cent month-on-month.
In October, the private sector accounted for about 75.0 per cent of total domestic credit, with the government taking up the remaining 25.0 per cent. The split is calculated from the N74.41 trillion in private credit and N24.79 trillion in government credit relative to total domestic credit of N99.20 trillion.
In September, the shares were almost identical, with the private sector at about 75.0% and government at 25.0 per cent.
In October 2024, total domestic credit stood at N113.46 trillion, of which N74.07 trillion went to the private sector and N39.39 trillion to government. That means private credit represented about 65.3 per cent of domestic credit, while government borrowing made up 34.7 per cent.
By October 2025, the private share had risen by almost 10 percentage points, driven mainly by the steep fall in government credit.
On the whole, total domestic credit is lower than a year ago, dropping by about N14.26 trillion, or 12.57 per cent, between October 2024 and October 2025, a development attributable to reduced credit to government, which fell by N14.60 trillion over the period. Private sector credit, by contrast, is slightly higher than a year ago, up by N0.34 trillion.
