Thursday, March 30, 2006

Soludo lists post consolidation plans for banks
From Tunde Oyedoyin, London

CENTRAL Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, has listed a new set of challenges that go far beyond mere consolidation in his banking sector reforms.

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Soludo, the World Central Banker of the Year 2005, disclosed this at a two-day Global Banking Conference on Nigerian Reforms at Dorchester Hotel in West London.

He said the new benchmark for Nigerian banks was to compete with their global counterparts and subject themselves to international rating agencies to know how and where they stand among others.

He lamented that unlike in the good old days when three Nigerian banks were numbered among the top 500 in the world, no Nigerian bank is ranked in the top 1000 at present.

Although he disclosed that the 25 banks - "four of which are foreign owned" - have recapitalised and all quite strong and reliable, Soludo said some loose ends needed to be tightened for the reforms agenda to launch them into the next level. "We want to institutionalise the reforms," he said, during his presentation titled, "Competing for Excellence in Nigeria New Banking Environment." This, he said, was the only way to ensure that the reforms were sustained.

Soludo disclosed that by next year, there would be no any wholly or ethnically based banks in the country.

Besides, the days of banks being regarded as honey pots seem numbered, as the the CBN boss added that by next year, federal and state governments' stakes in any bank would not be more than ten per cent.