Buoyed by increasing idle funds in banks’ vault, which rose above N600 billion last week, the prices of FGN continued their upward trend with the top five bonds rising by an average of N4.26

The bearish trend recorded last week is expected to ease
slightly, this week, giving way to a fluctuating trend, as investors take position ahead of the barrage of financial statements expected this month from banks and other companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Registrar/Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. Uju Ogubunka says it is possible for bank customers to safeguard their money in a bank against distress and he explains how this can be achieved.

Banks are now battling with money deposited by customers in their vaults which they are either not ready to give out as loans or nobody is coming forward to take. This is a fall out of the over N400 billion in the system more than the banks needed to hold in cash, which has brought the need for banks to lend to each other in the interbank money market to zero level.

This week, this column will take a break from its characteristic advocacy on the national economy and instead review the case of the young Nigerian, Farouk Muttalab who is currently facing trial in the United States for his failed attempt to blow up a US bound Trans Atlantic Aircraft flight on Christmas eve last year!