OVER N2 trillion depositors funds would have been lost in the banking sector if not for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s intervention through the set of reforms in the sector. This was disclosed by the CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at the Nigerian Tribune Special Award Ceremony, held at the Jogor Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Friday.

Mallam Sanusi, who won The Tribune Man of the Year Award, said the impacts would have been monumental if the Nigerian banking sector had collapsed.

“The banking reforms were met with anger, condemnation and allegation of ethnic agenda at the inception. Those who condemned the reforms, I knew, had no access to the information available to us. But I knew that when Nigerians begin to see the good side of the reforms, they will appreciate our efforts,” the CBN governor said.

The CBN governor said further, “we are not at the end of it all. By the first half of the year, we have to complete the recapitalisation of the banks. At least four of the big banks will sign MoU.


“Through the reforms, the foreign exchange has been stable and confidence has returned to the banks.”

He said a lot of progress had also been made on the power sector reforms while the CBN had released N200 billion to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Reacting to the rumour regarding massive retrenchment in the banking sector, the apex bank governor said there was no plan to retrench workers in the banking sector, but added that any retrenchment in an organisation could be as a result of excess load of staff carried by it, noting that banks were not exempted from such reforms.

“Every time an institution finds out that it is carrying excess capacity as far as staff are concerned, you do  some downsizing. It’s happening all over the world.

“If you look at America, Europe and some African countries, there has been financial crisis and many bankers have found themselves on the street.
“This is because these banks were making profits or claimed to be making profits and they are not, but discovered they needed to reduce costs. It’s a natural fallout of the financial crisis.

“However, as we recapitalise these banks, you find out that these banks are actually recruiting. As I speak to you, banks like Union Bank and Oceanic Bank are recruiting and the truth is there has been an increase in recruitment,” the CBN governor said.

Earlier in his address, the MD/EIC, African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc, Reverend Sam Adesua, said the social, economic and political surveillance of the polity informed the decision of top editorial members of the Tribune titles to review the Nigerian environment in the outgoing year.

He said it was unanimously decided at the meeting that as a way of encouraging public officers to be on the side of probity and good governance, some outstanding public officers should be honoured.

Rev. Adesua urged all those appointed or elected into public positions throughout the country to bear in mind that the searchlight of those who appointed or elected them as well that of press was on them.

On the award winners, he said out of several eminent Nigerians who qualified for the award, the two award winners, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (The Tribune Man of The Year) and  Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief  Godswill Akpabio (The Tribune Governor of The Year) were found to be outstanding.

“May I seize this opportunity to congratulate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and the Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, on their sterling achievements and I urge them to sustain the performances for which we are honouring them today.

“We feel proud to recommend these illustrious and outstanding Nigerians to other public officers in the country for emulation of their patriotism and doggedness,” Rev. Adesua admonished.

The CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi,  started his banking career in 1985 with Icon Limited later with the United Bank for Africa Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

He has worked in various fields in the banking profession, including Issuing House activity, financial advisory services and credit marketing.
He distinguished himself as the Chief Risk Officer in the two largest banks in the country, UBA Plc and FBN Plc.

In January 2009, Sanusi rose to the position of Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank Plc and in June 2009, he was appointed the 10th governor of the CBN.

Sanusi became the CBN governor at a period the global financial crisis was biting hard on nations and at a period the banking sector in the country was at the verge of collapse due to its over- exposure to the stock market and excessive margin lending, leading to a bubble in the capital market.
In his resolve to put things right in the banking sector, Sanusi introduced and implemented a far-reaching reforms aimed at addressing poor corporate governance, poor risk management practices, management fraud, insider abuse and weak regulation supervision and enforcement, which were identified as the bane of the country’s banking sector.

A joint audit exercise carried out by CBN and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) revealed that eight out of the 24 deposit money banks in the country were unhealthy.

This led to the removal of the CEOs of the banks, including Intercontinental, Oceanic, Union, Afribank, FinBank, Bank PHB, Spring Bank, and Equatorial Trust Bank.

To put the banks on the path of profitability and ensure stability in the institution, the Sanusi-led CBN injected nearly N1trillion as bailout funds to the banking sector.

He also set up the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (Amcon) to mop up the toxic assets in the balance sheets of the rescued banks in preparation for their takeover by new investors.

Also, to ensure sanity in the sector, Sanusi ensured compulsory retirement of CEOs, who had spent more than 10 years in office.

He also set tenure-limit of 12 years for non-executive directors and change of external auditors after 10 years.

Other reforms introduced by the Sanusi-led CBN included abolition of universal banking licence. Banks in the country can now operate as national bank, regional bank or international bank depending on the licences they obtained.

The microfinance banks and other institutions were also not left out in the reforms of Mallam Sanusi-led CBN. Last year, licences of 224 microfinance banks were withdrawn by the CBN for their failure in the target examination carried out on them by the CBN and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was born in Kano, Kano State, on July 31, 1961. He obtained  degrees in Economics and Islamic Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the International University of Africa, Khartoum, respectively.



http://tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/front-page-articles/3099-how-cbn-saved-depositors-from-losing-n2tr-to-sick-banks-sanusi.html

Are we supposed to applaud him or what

Good and brave strides though rare in this part of the world deserve applauds. I'm giving mine to him

showbobo:

Are we supposed to applaud him or what

Yes

Applauds to the technocrat with a good strenght of character. He has won virtually all 2010 man-of-year award in nigeria which shows he is well respected and trusted.
For those asking if we r to applaud him or not,he did not need ur applaud to achieve what he did so does not need ur applaud now .

SLS is indeed my man of the year KUDOS to him

I swear this article is phucking ridiculous.

sls well done.congrats!

We are not only to applaud him alone but also demand such level of performance from whoever we vote into Government seats this election,

yes, ares for don leak our money

The people of Nigerians are the ones to give him the credit not by himself. For me, i haven't seen any change till i applied for loan.

How did akpabio win anything in dis country dat man is known to run against his opponents

victorazy:

The people of Nigerians are the ones to give him the credit not by himself. For me, i haven't seen any change till i applied for loan.

Interest rates are going down and banks are doing better jobs before given loans now. I know of corporate bodies who have been able to get interest rate deals as low as 11.5% for employees personal loans. A lot of people are taking these lower interest loans to refinance high interest ones. There is less pressure on deposit hunting now, because the crazy 15% 20% returns has given way to 2 -3 %. If it continues this way there would be more money in the economy. AMCON is buying off banks bad loans that is why all there stocks are beginning to appreciate at the NSE and they should return to profit very soon.

LFJ:

“The banking reforms were met with anger, condemnation and allegation of ethnic agenda at the inception. Those who condemned the reforms, I knew, had no access to the information available to us. But I knew that when Nigerians begin to see the good side of the reforms, they will appreciate our efforts,” the CBN governor said.

The CBN governor said further, “we are not at the end of it all.

I'm not a master economist but, then you don't have to be to see when a leader is making foundational change for progress. It's exactly the same way plenty people complained about Amaechi with all the diversions that led to mega traffic jams in the city when Amaechi first became governor. Now, most drivers are smiling because the roads are smooth and perennial bottlenecks have opened up.
For improvement there have to be sacrifices made by all of us.

He should be applauded cos he nearly sacrificed his sanity trying to do the right thing. Those who created ethnically-induced pressure against him should applaud the most.

to me he really tried, but from another perspective, there might be something he want to do and he might be sponsored by some pple.

I like him, cause he is a man of his words. he did what many would have been scared to do. I love his courage.

So Tribune is an Ibadan based newspaper. I commend Sanusi 4 saving customers fund. With his likes i guess we are moving in the right direction

showbobo:

Are we supposed to applaud him or what

Mobinga:

I swear this article is phucking ridiculous.

He should be applauded and I see nothing ridiculous. I only think he should have done the reform across board, no pardons for other offenders and he should have acted in a manner that left more confidence in the banking system.

He obviously knows his job and performed creditably well.

@poster,
Who should he have credited? You??

Well, this sounds like a good news.

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I thank GOD for people like Sanusi,he is doing a good job,for safe guiding depositors money and is courageous stand on lawmakers salaries and allowances.Keep doing the good work.

Thank U Mallam Sanusi,you are a good man.

ff

I don't really see any difference in the Nigerian economy today from how it was when sanusi came in. So no applaud or ovation. shikena!

Some say he did the right thing, others disagree.

My question to him is this: how the blazes did Jim Ovia or Tony Elumelu escape the bank checks? Why werent all banks audited at once? Or did UBA & Zenith not have toxic loans? Agreed some had more, but these banks still had many bad loans didnt they? Why the selective justice then?

Ribadu is similar as he hunted mostly Obj's enemies.

No applause from me cos he & Ribadu are of the same ilk.

Some people were typically been blinded by ethnic and religious veils over their eyes, look at how this man saved nigerian banks with all the pressure on him at critical moment of economy meltdown (remember Greece?), but see the kind of comments that people are posting!!!! Honestly speaking some people doesn't even resemble ordinary illiterate human beings especially when

Decryptor:


I don't really see any difference in the Nigerian economy today from how it was when sanusi came in. So no applaud or ovation. shikena!

betrayed by their animalistic behaviour

renewnaija:

Some say he did the right thing, others disagree.

My question to him is this: how the blazes did Jim Ovia or Tony Elumelu escape the bank checks? Why werent all banks audited at once? Or did UBA & Zenith not have toxic loans? Agreed some had more, but these banks still had many bad loans didnt they? Why the selective justice then?

Ribadu is similar as he hunted mostly Obj's enemies.

No applause from me cos he & Ribadu are of the same ilk.

there are always cut off marks, pass not necessarily mean 100%, even in 1st class, you are allowed to make 30% error, lol
His reform has also taken the likes of Jim, Tony, etc, out of their "own" bank, they have been eased out by way of "retirement"

Remii:

there are always cut off marks, pass not necessarily mean 100%, even in 1st class, you are allowed to make 30% error, lol
His reform has also taken the likes of Jim, Tony, etc, out of their "own" bank, they have been eased out by way of "retirement"

So is it 'let's prosecute some and let others retire honourably?' So afterall there is some witch-hunting behind this then?
A bad egg is a bad egg so lets not try to justify his actions as the early audit for some banks gave the other banks & CEOs time to cook their books & put their house in order.

I think before you all give him kudos, you should be worried that he is still a puppet in the grand master plan of the main puppeteers. Those who were prosecuted obviously were not in the good books of this select few.

Nigerians, open your eyes.

Naija newspapers and their awards! These news organizations charged banks hefty fees for ads and goodwill messages for making it into bank of the year, IT bank of the year, and most improved bank categories. Newspapers connived with banks to dupe Nigerians, now they are coming back to shower praises on the same guy-SLS who exposed the banks. Same newspapers that convicted him SLS in their editorials and columns