Last month, president Goodluck Jonathan approved the creation of a 'bad bank' to allow the country's troubled banks to unload their non-performing assets. The need for an asset management company to perform this role has been on the cards ever since Nigeria's central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, moved on the sector last year, bailing out nine banks and changing the management at eight of them.
It will still be some time before Nigerian banks are lending normally and private sector credit is expected to fall from 42.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 to 36% in 2010.
