The rally by investors on banking stocks, last week contributed significantly to boost the stock market value to record N13.8 billion.

One of the negative fallouts of the fierce competition in the banking industry is demarketing. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) described demarketing as, “Unethical and unprofessional practice of de-marketing colleagues/other banks in the industry by spreading false rumours.”

This is absolutely correct considering the rapidly growing population of most African countries. Nigeria, for instance, was a strong agricultural produce exporting country prior to the oil boom era, with very strong export volumes and value in produce like cocoa and rubber. You very well know that the first palm kernel seed planted in Malaysia was taken from Nigeria, and that country today is one of the world’s largest exporters of palm oil. Agricultural funding is gradually increasing via various funding initiatives and I will touch on this as I go on.

When there was oil boom and a somewhat stable economy, the issue of unemployment was a very big problem. Now that Nigeria is experiencing economic crisis, one wonders what the hope of the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths would be.

The shareholders with the exception of a few have said that they do not have the confidence in the Commission’s ability to manage shareholders’ funds as evidence had shown in the past that most funds managed by government officials were mostly misappropriated.