Nigerian Banks under the umbrella of the Bankers’ Committee have resolved to provide funding to critical sectors of the economy in a bid to ensure sustained economic development in the country by floating development bonds.

This resolution was made at the Bankers’ Committee national retreat focused on “The Role of the Nigerian Financial System in Economic Development” held in Enugu recently. The Committee, chaired by Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, comprises the Deputy Governors of the Central Bank and Chief Executive Officers of Deposit Money Banks.

By this resolution, banks plan to float development bonds to finance infrastructure in critical areas such as power, agriculture, transportation and small and medium scale enterprises in the country.

On the significance of the initiative,  Mallam Sanusi Lamido, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Chief Executives of banks collectively emphasized the critical role financial institutions play in national development; noting that unfortunately, the current structure of lending to the Nigerian economy was such that the bulk of aggregate credit is channelled mainly to financial market operators and oil traders to the neglect of key aspects of the real economy such as power, agriculture, transportation, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) among others.

The Enugu Bankers Committee national retreat is further to the decision of the apex bank and the banks at the 296th Bankers’ Committee meeting on the need for the financial services sector to hold a retreat to explore collaborative approaches to support the transformation of the critical sectors of the Nigerian economy. The retreat was attended by international and local experts on project finance and infrastructure development, senior government officials, the CBN Governor, his deputies and all the Chief Executives of Money Deposit Banks, Development Bank and Discount Houses.

Besides floating bonds, the CBN and the Chief Executives of banks in a communiqué issued after the retreat also resolved to revitalize the investment function of banks with focus on packaging structured infrastructure finance deals as well as invest in targeted capacity building for investment bankers.

Also, it agreed to develop guidelines on asset allocation and investment of pension funds, propose a reduction in charges for establishing companies to the Corporate Affairs Commission to encourage local entrepreneurship and improve public and private sector capacity for infrastructure concessions.

The Committee also requested the CBN Governor to seek Federal Government approval for the required legislation and regulatory changes concerning its economic revitalization activities, present recommendations on the financial sector intervention to the National Executive Council (NEC) and present a report on the financial sector intervention to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for effective collaboration among the major parties.

As a demonstration of its commitment to the outlined developmental programmes, the Bankers’ Committee bestowed on the Central Bank of Nigeria the responsibility of monitoring activities of financial institutions and other operators to ensure adherence to the action plan and prepare and provide monthly implementation progress reports to the Bankers’ Committee.

Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, Minister of National Planning & Vice Chairman, National Planning Commission presented a paper on Vision 20:2020 / Expectation of the Banking System.  The minister, in his presentation, specified that there are various opportunities for the banks to participate in the development of the economy.

He noted that there was an existing information gap as people were not adequately informed on definite steps being taken by the government to address the current situation.