Nigeria plans to delay new capital rules for banks as regulators in Africa’s biggest economy follow fellow oil producer Kazakhstan in trying to boost lending and avoid a recession. The Central Bank of Nigeria in 2014 ordered the country’s lenders it considered too big to fail to boost minimum capital adequacy ratios to 16 percent from 15 percent to increase their resilience to shocks. The new rules, which followed a banking crisis in 2008 and 2009 that nearly wiped out the industry, were scheduled to start on July 1. The regulator wants to postpone the rules because the “sensible” thing to do is “reflate the economy and encourage lending,” Tokunbo Martins, director of banking supervision for the Central Bank of Nigeria, said by phone from the capital, Abuja. An announcement on the new date of implementation will be made by the end of the week, she said. Africa’s biggest […]