* Aims to grow loans sharply this year

* To raise 46 bln naira in debt and equity

* Shares down 19.3 pct this year

Nigerian lender Skye Bank is targeting retail and business customers this year with a goal to expand loans by 15 percent, up from 2 percent growth last year, its incoming chief executive said on Tuesday.

Skye Bank also said current chief executive Kehinde Durosinmi-Etti would retire this August and appointed its executive director in charge of corporate and investment banking, Timothy Oguntayo, as its new boss.

“Liquidity was a major constraint to growth in risk assets in 2013,” Oguntayo told an analyst conference call.

Shares in Skye Bank fell 1.4 percent on Tuesday to 3.50 naira, valuing the mid-tier lender at $287.4 million. The stock has fallen 19.3 percent this year, underperforming the broader index which is down 5.6 percent.

Nigeria’s central bank has been hiking cash reserve requirements for lenders to hold deposits in order to tighten liquidity. The move has curbed banks’ ability to earn fees by lending the government back its own money, hurting profits.

Skye Bank said 13 percent of its 2013 deposits of 823.3 billion naira were government deposits. Pretax profit rose to 17.13 billion naira ($104.5 mln) in 2013, up 3.8 percent from 16.51 billion the previous year.

Oguntayo said the bank planned to raise $100 million in tier II debt and 30 billion naira in equity between the second and third quarters of 2014 to strengthen its capital base.

The lender is targeting a return on equity of 17 percent this year, Oguntayo said, up from 14.1 percent last year.

Source: Reuters (by Chijioke Ohuocha)