Mrs Tokunbo Martins, the Director, Banking Supervision Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the bank has approved two super agents to distribute banking services at cheaper prices.
Martins, who made the disclosure at the 326th Bankers Committee meeting on Thursday in Lagos, said the approval was part of CBN’s agency banking policy.
She said the super agents who would recruit their agents were expected to carry banking services to the nooks and crannies of the country at affordable prices to the citizenry.
Martins added that the youth entrepreneurship development programme was launched in March, targeted at 10,000 youths with focus on sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, ICT and cottage industries.
She noted that beneficiaries of the programme were in three categories, including serving National Youth Corps (NYSC) members and those that had passed out.
She said that the period of the programme should not exceed five years for beneficiaries and artisans.
Linking the foreign exchange crisis to the Nigerian economy, the Managing Director, Guarantee Trust Bank Plc (GTB), Mr Segun Agbaje, said that the decline in the oil price at the international market affected the foreign exchange market.
Agbaje said: “I don’t think there is any secret any more.
“I believe that in Nigeria, we have all become experts on the foreign exchange market.
“But the reality of where we are today is that we are coming from 115 dollars per barrel of oil price to somewhere around 40 dollars.
“We all have to make adjustments because our habits have to change with less money to spend.
“As corporate bodies, you have to invest in import substitution and develop things locally and that is truly where we are. I don’t think there is much to debate.
“We all have to make sure we allocate the scarce foreign exchange we have and make the best out of it”.
The Managing Director, Fidelity Bank, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, said that the nation’s economic development was a major concern of the Bankers Committee.
“If you recall, the MPC meeting held in September 2015 reduced the CRR was reduced by five per cent.
“The intention then was to release this five per cent to banks to enable them to give loans to the real sector borrowers at single digit interest rate.
“We discussed around that today and agreed that the CBN works out modalities to hasten actions towards releasing the five per cent drop in CRR to the banks.
“This will enable them to lend it to the real sector at single digit interest rate; we are looking forward to making that real,” Okonkwo said.
On the need for import substitution to boost the economy, the Managing Director, Unity Bank Plc, Mrs Tobi Somefun, disclosed that the committee discussed extensively on the need to diversify the economy.
According to her, the committee identified agriculture as a major area to diversify into and as you are probably aware, few months ago, the CBN launched the Anchor Borrower scheme.
“The banks have participated in this,” she said.
“We have enrolled 78,000 farmers in the first launch of this initiative in Kebbi State.
“There the farmers were given monies to acquire an acre of land each and to farm on the plots of lands with an average of N210,000 disbursed to each farmer.
“As the rainy season approaches, we intend to launch this scheme in other areas across the six geo-political zones in the country.
