Nigeria International Financial Centre to be established

CBN Boss Lamido Sanusi

Nigeria International Financial Centre to be established
Hauwa Noroh Ali, Abuja 

The Central Bank of Nigeria  says that it plans to create a financial system that is surplus to domestic requirements and also create a Nigeria International Financial Centre that will make Nigeria Africa’s financial hub.

CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi Lamido, stated this at a three day workshop on the strategy execution master class of the Financial System Strategy 2020 (FSS2020) in Abuja the Nigerian Capital.

He said that the apex bank , having chosen the Balanced Scorecard as the framework for strategy execution and performance management, felt it was imperative to have a special session with Dr Kaplan, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School, to enable them interrogate the CBN planning process and overall framework.

FSS2020 programme

“The Balanced Scorecard concept is not new to the Central Bank of Nigeria…we have positioned our strategy along the 4 perspectives.

Along the line we have trained some of our staff on the concept and some have taken the BSC professional certification examinations and are now full-fledged Kaplan & Norton Balanced Scorecard Certified Graduates”, the apex bank boss said.

He said the Strategy Execution Master Class was  being sponsored by the CBN on the platform of the FSS2020 Programme for the benefit of the entire financial system.

Financial sector reforms

Going down memory lane, the apex bank boss said in 2006, “we collectively agreed to pursue a financial reform programme that would be holistic, internally consistent and in harmony across board”.

This was informed by the not-too-pleasant  disparate results recorded by the various sectors of the financial system in their individual efforts to reform.  CBN boss added.

When the FSS2020 programme was launched, the governor said its diagnostic phase saw about 150 experts from across the financial system coming together to craft a road map for financial sector reforms.

FSS2020 initiative

“At the end of the exercise, we agreed that we should set up a financial system that would make Nigeria Africa’s financial hub”,  the governor said.

The governor disclosed that the FSS2020 programme was a holistic programme with the vision to make Nigeria one of the safest and fastest growing economies among the emerging markets.

On the success of  FSS 2020, the governor said that  might not be the appropriate forum to sing the success stories of the FSS2020 initiative but hinted that “it is arguably the most comprehensive financial reform programme going on in the world today.”

Global financial crisis

He said the various sectors of the economy had shown tremendous improvement, in spite of the adverse impact of the global financial crisis that has been on since late 2008.

On the scorecard, he said,  “As you can see from the foregoing, we have since entered the implementation phase of FSS2020. However, strategy is a dynamic process and requires constant stress testing and interrogation.”

On the event, the governor said,  “The three-day Balanced Scorecard event is part of that process.

It is our belief that an event of this nature that brings together the captains of the financial system is very important, to enable us revalidate our process of strategy execution and make necessary refinements.

Capital adequacy and liquidity ratio

He noted that the banking sector had experienced a dramatic drop in the levels of non- performing loans and the structured growth of the banks in the areas of capitalization, capital adequacy and liquidity ratio.

The Governor said that all these were  restoring confidence in the Nigerian economy while stressing that the banks were  on the road to recovery.

The CBN governor said the apex bank had put in place the relevant measures to grow the banking sector along the lines of international best practices.

ATM fraud

The immediate gains of all these measures, Governor Sanusi stated were the reduction of ATM frauds by about 90 percent.

He said the apex bank was  also deepening the yield curve in the financial markets and the level of transparency, a situation that resulted in dramatically rising efficiency in those markets.

Mallam Sanusi noted that serious investors were coming back to the Nigerian market:  “We have also embarked on a comprehensive review of our legal framework so that we can create the ambient environment for economic growth and development.”

In payments, Mallam Sanusi expressed the confidence that Nigeria would have a modern payment system comparable to what obtains in other developed economies.

Iheanacho/Ekata