Nigeria's Stanbic IBTC pretax profit falls 63 pct

LAGOS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Stanbic IBTC (IBTC.LG: Quote, Profile, Research), the Nigerian unit of South Africa's Standard Bank (SBKJ.J: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Wednesday pretax profit slumped 62 percent to 5.1 billion naira ($34 million) in the nine months to the end of September.

The bank said it had made provisions of 5.9 billion naira on loans and advances following a sector-wide audit by the central bank. Gross earnings dropped to 42.8 billion naira in the period from 47.1 billion a year earlier. (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Oludare Mayowa; Editing by Nick Tattersall)