Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria,
Nigeria’s financial system stable – CBN
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given a clean bill of health to operators in the country’s financial system, as it declared them ‘stable,’ amid claims of distress reported earlier last week which saw customers troop to some first tier banks seeking to close their accounts.
The government’s regulatory institution also said it has so far recovered a total of N89.2 billion from commercial banks across the country for over 23,000 customers based on complaints lodged over failed transactions.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made the disclosure at a two-day harmonized sensitization seminar tagged; ‘CBN Fair’ on the theme “Promoting financial stability and economic development,” held via zoom for the people of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States in South-South Nigeria.
Emefiele, who was represented at the seminar by the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Osita Nwanisobi, said the bank conducted examinations on commercial institutions across the country, which results indicated that the financial system is stable.
“More importantly, we also want to build confidence in our financial system and to disabuse all of these rumours about distress in the system. There is nothing like that.
“Our financial system is resilient and safe and sound. But, we want to engage with the people,” said Emefiele who also reiterated his commitment to making the CBN a people- centred institution by regular engagements and sensitization, while also assuring that the bank was committed to executing interventions that would speak to the needs of the people.
On recovering money for customer from commercial banks operating in the country, Emefiele said CBN’s Consumer Protection Department examined the thousands of complaints from customers and ensured that the monies were returned.
“The recoveries were made basically based on the complaints that individuals raised that oftentimes borders on issues of charges. Once these complaints are received at the Consumer Protection Department, they go all out to investigate.
“After the investigation, when the complaints are found to be true, the department insists that the banks refund the monies to the individual(s). That is what happened,” Emefiele said.
The CBN governor further explained that the essence of the CBN’s engagement with the people especially the youth was to ‘create awareness; to let the people know the CBN’s policies, our interventions and our programmes as well as get feedback from them on how the policies are impacting on their lives and businesses.’
On the intervention the CBN has for Nigerians, the governor said that there were about 37 schemes and programmes targeted at fulfilling President Muhammadu Buhari’s mission of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
“We have about 37 interventions in the Central Bank of Nigeria and these interventions are targeted. Like the coronavirus experience, which affected the global economy as it was shutdown, families and businesses were affected and so the CBN had to roll out some interventions to mitigate the adverse impact of coronavirus on livelihoods,” he said.
He further explained, ‘the interventions are created based on gaps identified in the economy to help rejig the real economy.’
The seminar is expected to end on Saturday after engagements with special farmers’ groups drawn from the two states.
