Posted by By SEUN ADESIDA on
The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, has asked Nigerian banks to raise $1 billion capital base and win additional $500 million foreign reserve fund for management. Soludo disclosed this at the annual bankers dinner held in Lagos last Friday.
…As Oceanic, FirstBank emerge best banks in Nigeria
The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, has asked Nigerian banks to raise $1 billion capital base and win additional $500 million foreign reserve fund for management. Soludo disclosed this at the annual bankers dinner held in Lagos last Friday.
According to Soludo, 'I have designated that any bank that gets a capital base of $1 billion will be rewarded with additional $500 million foreign reserve to manage. CBN will not ask for recapitalisation, or merger and acquisition, but that is already happening all by itself, I know I have the application of two banks that are already coming together and I hear another one trying to happen, I know there is a meeting outside Nigeria."
The CBN governor who was the guest speaker at the event told the pensive bankers that: 'I want to inform Nigerian banks that you ain't seen nothing yet. It is in the light of these that we realise we should have a financial system that functions as a system and not just isolated segments, like the banking industry, insurance, capital market and so on, all moving in a haphazard direction.
Meanwhile, Soludo on the occasion congratulated Oceanic Bank for emerging the Best Bank in Nigeria in 2006, an award given by Bankers Magazine of London. FirstBank Nigeria Plc, was named the Best Bank 2006 by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in the area of financing of the Real and Export sector, FirstBank clinched the award ahead of Zenith and Access banks.