The Director of Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Ahmed Abdullahi on Thursday said that the economy would record tremendous improvement by the third quarter of the year.
Abdullahi said while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the 333rd Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos.
According to him, this is because the foreign exchange rate has remained stable as there is convergence between the official and parallel markets.
He also said that investors’ confidence in the economy was gradually building up as was indicated in downward trend in the inflation rate and the positive development recorded at the capital market.
“The Bankers Committee noted with delight the improvement in the economy in recent times. Although the economy is still in the negative but the size of the negative growth has reduced.
“It is almost obvious that by the end of the end of the third quarter, there will be positive growth and there are a number of indices that are pointing toward that.
“Inflation is trending downwards. It is about 16.25 per cent from18 per cent that it was.
“The exchange rate has largely stabilised, we are seeing convergence at both the nafex and Importer and Exporter window as well as the Bureau De Changes’ rate.
The director added that confidence was increasingly building in the economy, saying that it was due to improvement in oil production and oil price.
“The economy will remain robust now that there is upward growth in most of the sectors of the economy.
“The nafex window in the last six weeks over two billion dollars has been reregistered as inflow and that has helped in satbilising the market.
“With other windows, we have seen activities that have helped in building confidence in the market generally,’’ he said.
The Managing Director of Standard Chartered Banks, Mrs Bola Adesola gave update on the agriculture and small enterprise equity fund.
Adesola said that the equity fund was a decision reached after the last Bankers’ Committee’s retreat in May as our commitment as banks to support agriculture and Small and Medium Enterprises in a sustainable way.
“After the audited results of the banks have been published, we all contributed five per cent of our Profit After Tax (PAT) to a fund in CBN toward contributing equity to agric and SMEs.
“As you know, many companies cannot just survive on debt because of the cost of debt, and so long term capital is required to cataliSe the growth in SMEs and make them more viable and sustainable.”
She also disclosed that there had been a contribution of N26 billion in the equity fund, while the committee was still working on the frame work as well as looking at partnerships.
“ We are looking at co investing with private equity firms as well, and the objective is to catalise growth in SMEs to ease access to finance to build capacity in the agriculture and SMEs sector to create jobs and ultimately to improve prosperity.
“The economic development of the bankers committee is working with development finance and legal department and supervision in the CBN.
“We also want to ensure that we have the right governance around the equity fund and it is our own contribution to economic growth and prosperity in the country,” she added.
Also speaking, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank said there were also discussions on issues that could jeopardie financial inclusion and anything that would stop people from being included in the formal financial sector.
“We will work to ensure that bottlenecks are removed.
“One key issue that came up today is the issue on customers of Micro Finance Banks who do not yet have their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) registered.
“Some feedback that we got at the committee was that some banks charge customers when they try to register.
“So the bankers’ committee agreed today that MFB customers can walk into any bank and register their BVN free of charge to make sure that we don’t discourage people from being financially included. (NAN)
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