Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GUARANTY), Nigeria’s third-biggest lender by market value, said it plans to sell about 30 billion naira ($192 million) of its non-performing loans to the state-owned Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, or Amcon, this year.

Guaranty sold 1.7 billion naira of toxic assets to Amcon in 2010, “which is relatively immaterial compared to 41 billion naira in non-performing loans” on the bank’s books, it said in an e-mailed document.

The bank reduced its non-performing loan ratio to 6.79 percent last year, from 12.2 percent a year earlier, due to “strong recovery efforts,” it said.

A debt crisis in Nigeria’s banking industry in 2009 forced the Central Bank of Nigeria to rescue some of country’s lenders by injecting 620 billion naira of capital into them. Eight of the lenders’ chief executive officers were fired.

Guaranty plans to expand its loan book by 15 percent this year, Deputy Managing Director Segun Agbaje said on a conference call from the commercial capital, Lagos. That compares with loan growth of 4.7 percent in 2010.

Guaranty will complete the sale of its non-banking units by May or June this year, in line with new central bank regulations, Agbaje said.

Guaranty shares declined 7 kobo, or 0.4 percent, to 19.9 naira by the 2:30 p.m. close of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The stock has gained 12 percent this year, compared with a 0.3 percent decline in the bourse’s All-Share Index over the same period.