₦airaland Forum

RoadStar:
The fact is that the US government arm twisted Goldman (and any other investment bank) into taking a commercial licence.
By doing so the US has indirectly forced all banks to become more or less universal.

About goldman going burst, subsequent facts and comments from analysts including goldman themselves point to the fact that they just took advantage of the situation.

We all ought to be well informed in Nigeria, espedially our policy makers.

They would say that now, won't they? If Lehman Brothers had been able to "take advantage of the situation" they would have survived as well. They and those 'analysts' will now have been saying the same thing as above.


"Six months after accepting a[b] financial lifeline from Washington[/b], a newly profitable Goldman Sachs is pushing to return the billions of taxpayer dollars that it received in an effort to extricate itself from heightened government control.

Goldman, which rode out the final, tumultuous months of 2008 with the help of a federal rescue, reported strong quarterly profits on Monday and said that it would seek to raise money in the capital markets to repay the government."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/business/15goldman.html

RoadStar:
Universal banking is the prevalent model of banking in Europe, UK and emerging markets, after the recession, the US tilted towards universal banking (contrary to Sanusis comments) having abandoned their investment banking models prompting banks like Goldman Sachs to apply for commercial banking licences.

Banks like RBS are selling their non-core banking units but this is as a results of restructuring within the banking institution which is heavily indebted to the taxpayer and not as a result of regulation from the government.

With Barclays capital buying up the Lehman brothers investment divisions in US.

Sanusis above comment therefore is very misleading and far from the truth.

Goldman Sachs had to apply for a commercial banking license to be eligible to partake in the US Govts. bail out package - they would have gone bankrupt otherwise.

^^^ . . .wait for the English 'Fans' 

@ PrinceK12

That thought has crossed my mind on more than a few occassions, although you can add the whole of the South not just Lagos.

Makes you wonder, if the North had just half the industries the South has/had, won't they have done something constructive about the power situation considering the lenght of time they have been in charge?

^ ^ ^

^^^ The illustration I gave was to highlight that it was possible for them to all be NFF officials. It is also equally possible for some of them not to be NFF officials, but want to go on govt. expense or for whatever other reason – this group would most likely be a small minority. Of all those that were refused, are you saying NON of them are genuine NFF officials and that the SA Embassy is not aware of this fact?

Let me try and put this in context:

Every year over 100,000 Nigerians go to Italy, Israel and Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage, this includes a few thousand govt. officials (The Nigerian govt. sponsors/subsidises almost all of them to varying degrees; with up to 100% govt. funding for the thousands of govt. officials going in their official capacity with full estacode allowance – I am NOT in support of this as well). What this means is that the Italian, Israeli and Saudi Arabian Embassies issue over 100,000 visas every single year to Nigerians to travel into their respective countries. They don’t seem to be too worried, like some here and ‘apparently’ the SA Embassy are, that they would abscond or that the’ officials’ are not genuine govt. officials.

So if these countries above are issuing over 100,000 visas every year to Nigerians, why then does SA Embassy have a problem issuing ‘just 200’ visas for ‘NFF Officials’ and some ‘hundreds’ more for ‘Supporters’ to go to the first World Cup being held in Africa with Nigeria being one of the participants?

Ranoscky, you do realise you can use your head and make your point without being insultive?

@ Ranoscky

There are 36 state federations, 6 staff from each office would easily make up 200 delegates.

Why this old tired 'when they get there they would run away mentality'?  I will repeat I am not for the Govt. sponsoring this number of delegates -- but this mentality of accepting that the SA Embassy can do as they wish since it is Nigeria is the issue.

They know us very well and know how most Nigerians would choose to perceive this - but the truth is they see Nigeria as a big threat, be it business men, delegates, supporters or what have you.

Geniune business men/women are being refused visas as well because they don't want them to partake in the SA economy but would gladly come down here to do business. Main One Cable is a good example, they have been denied a telecoms licence in SA due to some draconian laws they put in place for this purpose, but their own MTN has a free rein here! Main One has put a petition in with the NCC and this is still ongoing.

Now I don't know why a lot of  Nigerians cannot make their point and leave it at that. It is a never ending war zone: be it in Nigeria, abroad or online like a lot of people are fond of doing here - this is the real problem with Nigeria - Nigerians taking offense with their fellow Nigerians because they have a different opinion, but become exclusively deaf and dumb if it happens to be a foreigner.

naijaking1:
There is a cap. That cap is called common sense.
This is not like the Olympics where some countries participate in almost every event and subsequently arrive with large number of delegates/participants, this is simply soccer.
With 22-member team, a few officials, etc, why on this green planet would a country send 202 officials to "officiate" 22 players
Only if we're talking about Nigeria
Your point about what SA could or could not do with this overflowing bus-load of corrupt Nigerian officials missed the marked, because the issue is not about whether SA care about us or not. It should be about whether we care for ourselves, begininng right from home. Nothing personal.

This has got nothing to do with common sense from the SA Embassy's perspective. From the Nigerian side yes, common sense dictates that the Govt. should not be sponsoring such a large contingent taking into account the cost implication. But that is not the issue the SA Embassy seem to be bothering about here.

Are tickets for the Nigerian matches sold out or likely to be sold out? Probably not - we would see a lot of empty seats during Nigeria's matches.

If the Brazilian or Argentinian FF decide to go with an equally large contingent would the SA Embassy refuse them visas simply because of the sheer number or cost implication?

You still have not answered the question: If those NFF officials that were refused amongst the 200, decide to sponsor themselves, would the SA embassy now turn around and issue them with visas?

I am definitely against Nigeria going with such a large Govt. sponsored contingent (a large Nigerian contingent would be welcome though), but what exactly is the rational of the SA Embassy except for their historic conceited prejudices against Nigeria? If you are not aware Nigeria and SA have been having a long running battle over issuance of visas including business visa which was loopsided in favour of SA business men/women against their Nigerian counterparts, and it took threats from the highest levels of similar retaliation from Nigeria for them to decide to harmonise some of the requirements.

Naijaking1, still, your rudeness and disrespectful language in your earlier post was uncalled for.

naijaking1:
Quote from: ADint on Today at 04:03:41 AM

I don't think it is the South African Embassy's place to question why NFF is going to the world cup with a 200 man delegation, unless there is a cap on delegate numbers from Football Federations across the whole 32 teams participating. Any football federation should be able to go with any number of permitted delegates it likes. They wouldn't question the Brazilian or US Football Federation about that would they?

As indicated from the news item above this will mainly be, if not exclusively govt. officials from the 36 state federations and the NFF HQ, so unlikely they would abscond in SA.

We Nigerians are rightly appalled at the huge no. going because of the expense this will involve, but that should not be any of the SA embassy's business.

Your perspective is one reason why Nigeria is backwards and would forever remain so, unless such stupidity is somehow removed. You mix your logic with some underserved sense of pride, self adulation, while ignoring basic rules of the game.

Nigeria and Nigeria alone arrived this game 202 officials, more than any other country in the World, and you tell me there's nothing wrong with the picture
Your next line of argument is that even if there's something wrong, it's not in SA's place to point it out and possibly enforce it? Nothing surprising coming from a typical Nigerian that has been rendered impotence by his own personal sense of helpless, and hopelesslness.

After all, we have come to stay 3 weeks without power, months and years without running water, don't even talk about about other amenities the goverment was supposed to be taking care of. We lack these things, miss them, then we assume a sense of peace and tranquility in their abscence---we forget what the default position ought to be. We forgot so much, that we even become ironically and delusionally happy, so happy that we rank among one of the "happiest" conuntries in the world. We're happy, because we have somehow managed to live in 2010 as if 1910.

Well my friend, the bad news for you is that other countries are really moving on, despite our own retrospective steps back into antiquity.

Nigerians who want to attend the game from the states, the private, and public organisations should pay full price for it. If we happhily allow them to r*ape us left and right and through corruption in this country, why are you angry that SA wouldn't turn around for the same corrupt Nigerian officials to do the same thing they do to us here at home?

We are not talking about players and real team support members who would actually make a difference in our tournament success or failure in SA. For every rogue Nigerian official snicking into SA, a genuine Nigerian player suffers directly or indirectly, just think about it.

Naijaking1 it would have done you well if you read my post carefully and approached this logically.

The Issues here are:

Is there a cap on the number of delegates a Football Federation can bring? If the answer is NO then why is the SA Embassy putting a cap on the Nigerian delegation?

Most people here including myself agree that this is quite a large contingent because we realise that the cost would be enormous and be borne by the Govt., but what has that got to do with the SA Embassy?

If there is no cap or this figure (200) is within the maximum limit, what then is their reason for refusing the visas? (the cost of the trip to Nigeria NOT been a valid reason!). Like I stated earlier, if any other FF amongst the other 31 decide to take this same number of delegates, would the SA embassy refuse them simply because of the cost involved?

If those NFF officials that were refused amongst the 200, decide to sponsor themselves, would the SA embassy now turn around and issue them with visas? – Not likely as we have seen with the Supporters Club.

This is an internal issue for the Nigerian people, the Senate or Reps to take up. The SA Govt. and other Foreign Govts. for that matter don’t question why we are spending billions, for instance when we printed the 2007 election materials in South Africa or the Nigerian Govt. buys a fleet of the most expensive cars from Germany or Japan.

So has the SA Embassy/Govt. suddenly developed unending love for Nigerians and have become social crusaders on our behalf?

Naijaking1, you may disagree with what I have posted here and on other threads (that is your right), but don’t turn it personal and resort to being rude and disrespectful.

I don't think it is the South African Embassy's place to question why NFF is going to the world cup with a 200 man delegation, unless there is a cap on delegate numbers from Football Federations across the whole 32 teams participating. Any football federation should be able to go with any number of permitted delegates it likes. They wouldn't question the Brazilian or US Football Federation about that would they?

As indicated from the news item above this will mainly be, if not exclusively govt. officials from the 36 state federations and the NFF HQ, so unlikely they would abscond in SA.

We Nigerians are rightly appalled at the huge no. going because of the expense this will involve, but that should not be any of the SA embassy's business.

@ tkb417 & mbulela

Were you able to get any info on this from Businessday? Does seem like a hoax or worse still a scam!! Businessday!!!

. . . The news item is still on the front page of Businessday's website, so till they retract the story or there is sufficient evidence to the contrary I will stick with Business day. Businessday has had a good reputaion in the industry thus far.

The Financial Consultant mentioned, Benjamin Aduli is involved in other high profile projects --

http://microfinanceafrica.net/news/africa-capital-and-business-support-to-invest-n6bn-in-integrated-microfinance-bank/

http://allafrica.com/stories/201004230740.html

He has also been involved with several credible organisations and Events organised and supported by State Govts. in Nigeria, Regional Govts. in West Africa, the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), EU Trade Commission and a host of others.

Events like:

- The West Africa Investment Forum 2009, 30th March—1st April 2009, Transcorp Hilton Abuja.

- G8 CORPORATE AFRICA INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT CONFERENCE, 28 - 30 June 2009 held in London.

- The Kwara International Agric Business Conference, in Kwara State On The 27th to 29th July 2009

. . . to name a few.

"•Sends ‘letter of intent’ to ICRC
Mediterranean Consulting Company (MCC) S.A. (Switzerland) on Tuesday wrote the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) of its readiness to acquire up to $20 billion 25 years notes in form of certificate of deposits (CDs), bond or medium term notes (MTNs) under its debt financing and collateral trading programme over a 10-month period starting from June 1, 2010."

"Indeed, an HSBC Hong Kong and Shangai Bank’s “proof of funds letter” signed by JD Coombe and RA. Fairhead, director, international banking operations and director of treasury, respectively, sent to AL Saleh Abdulrahman Al Saleh, department of finance, Dubai, U.A.E, in possession of BusinessDay confirmed with full responsibility that MCC is one of its clients and that it has the amount in its account.

“We, HSBC Bank hereby confirm with full responsibility that our above mentioned client have twenty billion United States dollars ($20, 000,000,000.00) in cash/assets (Type of assets) on deposits in the above referenced account. We further confirm that these funds are good, clean, cleared, of non-criminal origin, free of any liens or encumbrances, were legally earned, and are fully transferable. We further confirm that Mr. Luigi Forino, with passport No. F0609661, issued by Switzerland, has been recorded as signatory on the above referenced account.” "

http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11583:swiss-firm-offers-20bn-to-enter-infrastructure-bond-market&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=18


This is in the same economy we are being told that Sanusi has destroyed etc - what we have here now, are very serious and credible long term investors (what our economy needs) not the foreign speculators we had preiviously in the stock market. There can be no stronger show of confidence in our economy by a major international finance corporation -- but you just watch as 'our banks' start to fall over themselves to get involved as well even at below the 9% these guys are looking for.

Another 'repentant' and 'very wise man' . . . obviously not too keen on going to Dubai.

What a seriously daft name for such an organisation - you don't see or hear American, UK or German citizens abroad (even though they are mostly also abroad for economic reasons as well) referring to themselves or been called "Diaspora"; what you will hear and see is "Expatriates".

"Meanwhile, as the nation marked the 2010 Democracy Day, the Bayelsa State Government has given President Goodluck Jonathan mandate to contest in the 2011 presidential election.

This is just as it voted N1.5 billion for post-amnesty capacity–building programme.

Representing the interests of over 1.7 million people in the state, Governor Timipre Sylva said, “as a state we have given him the mandate to go ahead and run, even though, he has not declared interest in the presidential race yet.

“He has our full support to deliver on quality leadership for Nigeria . As Acting President, he did very well and we are confident that he will continue to do well at the helm of affairs of our country." "

http://www.tribune.com.ng/sun/index.php/front-page-articles/1190-2011-it-ll-be-difficult-to-unseat-jonathan-jubril-aminu-bayelsa-gives-him-open-cheque-shekarau-faults-zoning-arrangement


'Very Wise Man' , unlike someone we know. . .
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Akanbi_edu:
Now this is really funny to me.

^Can you expand on the above?

Are you saying David Mark (Benue) or Bukola Saraki (Kwara - another possible contender) are NOT 'Northerners'? 
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PapaBrowne:
Hehehe!! Mr Poster! You are still living in the past. We are in a new Nigeria Mister!
1)[/b]The Jos crises has split the North in Two. Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara and half of Adamawa, Niger, Kaduna,Nasarawa are now middle belt states. They would gladly reject any core Northerner and vote for Jonathan. So that numbers game you talked about is no more valid.

[b]2)[/b]We now have two militaries in Nigeria. Gone are the days when the Northern Army oppressed the rest on Nigeria. This time around the Niger Delta militants would happily close down Nigeria's source of income and all the Northern Governors you talk about would have no money to pay for brides from Egypt!

[b]3) Obasanjo is the new kingmaker! He had it all planned out. He fooled those old haggards into accepting Yar Adua as the northern pick. Too bad you gys were not wise enough to decipher his plans. Its too late Mister Pikadily! Power is staying in the hands of the south for as long as we deem fit.


And a final word, Mr Pikadily: We own commerce, We own the oil, We own the Banks and now we've got the power! Sorry, your Northern Governors are left with nothing but a horde of Almajiri's! My advice to you is to tell them to forget about power and child brides and and focus on giving you guys some education!! Nonsense!

Agree with you. The middlle belt is an emerging seperate power block right now.

David Mark (Benue) – Senate President, Mohammed Adoke (Kogi) – Attorney General & Minister of Justice (very important as we have seen),  Austin Oniwon (Kogi) – New NNPC MD ($$$). . . the middle belt is no longer interested in playing second fiddle under ‘one North’ – a separate identity is what they are pushing for now. All these guys above will obviously be pushing for a Jonathan presidency for 2011. After that though, I won’t be at all surprised if a Middle Belter (David Mark?) takes over from Jonathan in 2015.
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funkybaby:

Quote from: ADint on Today at 06:30:11 AM
@ marvix & tbk417

Thanks for that. You Guys are also indeed well deserving 'Gold Card Members' of the 'enlightened' club .

yeah right. 

Ok funkybaby, I will 'arrange' for you to have Silver Card Membership ,,, (don't want to upset the Gold Card members by 'arranging' Gold membership immediately, but don't worry you will get that shortly after - no be Naija?? )
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@ marvix & tbk417

Thanks for that. You Guys are also indeed well deserving 'Gold Card Members' of the 'enlightened' club .

@naijaking1

Using your analogy, yes the house was dirty and leaky; some parts more than others. In the worst affected parts rot had set in and was spreading fast, not only that, some parts also had atomic-strength termites that can eat into anything – steel, concrete, you name it. The renovator (Sanusi) decided the best solution at the time was to burn those rotten areas that included the termites (as they were an even bigger threat than the leak itself). The smoke got to the other occupants of the building and they ran out and started shouting “fire, fire, fire Sanusi has burnt the whole building” – which was not true on closer examination when the smoke cleared, although most of the building was covered with black smoke. Fortunately all the atomic-grade termites and extremely rotten parts were gotten rid off by the fire , still leaving some rot and leaky roof (and smoke blackened walls) that can be dealt with conventionally.

There is no gain without pain. The fact that there is going to be reduced economic activities after a reform programme is a given. What Sanusi did not fully understand was that most banks in Nigeria only really understood short-term lending and ‘nepotic’ banking – even though they had funds, they were unable to lend because lending medium to long term or even short term with the required due diligence, meant they would probably run at a loss due to the huge overheads that they had built up on the back of their predominantly short-term lending and ‘nepotic’ banking model.

Most of their prior lending were simply ‘bridging loans’ and overdrafts – highly profitable, but with it attendant high cost of operation. This also explains why they were able to pay such high interest on fixed deposits and huge salaries.
 
A lot of what those who are anti-Sanusi are saying is ‘with the benefit of hindsight’. Have you considered where the banking industry would have been now if there had been a run on just one of the banks?? Even before Sanusi came onboard, the rumour mill (or should I say reality mill) was already agog with the impending insolvency of Intercontinental and Oceanic. Hindsight like they say is a good thing.

By the way this is not just about corruption in the banks, it is about a number of greedy fraudsters parading as bankers.  Why was there not that level of ‘corruption’ at GTB or UBA?
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Have come across limited information on the project, it may be one of those projects that have been designed with too much complexity so as to create a big 'wow' factor on completion - although there may well be other issues. Geometrics though have some pedigree, they completed a smaller 15 Megawatt power project for the FCT in 2001.

I do agree, as I have acknowledged in earlier posts, that the reforms could have been better handled, but you can’t exactly blame Sanusi for all the ills arising from the reforms. Reforms are usually painful in some form, even though mild in some cases. There will always be a lull in economic activities following reforms/readjustments as was the case in the west over the past couple of years. The Greeks have had to agree to stringent reform policies to save their economy, and they would have quite a few tough years ahead.

Another important consideration that has been overlooked is that Nigeria is an ‘ANTI-REFORM’ society. This is evident in most of the reforms that have been on the cards for a while now – electoral reform, power reform, land act reform… as reforms tend to change the status quo i.e. rigging, corruption, indiscipline, incompetence, nepotism, mismanagement and so on - the bottom-line being no more unfettered ride on the state and the public wealth.

Also, Nigeria as a nation does not have a good history of successfully planning and implementing/executing reforms, so reforms in a way are ‘foreign’ to Nigeria and so hiccups and stumbling starts are to be expected. This would be a major problem if, in carrying on the reforms we are unable to re-assess and re-evaluate our position and make adjustments as and where necessary, to focus on the positive ends the reforms aim to achieve in the first place, and not to make the means an end in itself – which is now been addressed in this case. Overall I believe Sanusi’s intentions are still honourable (even though he may need secret evening lessons ).

In fact I think the title of this thread should have been 'Olusegun Aganga, Finance Minister Also Endorses Sanusi!' . That is what he has done in essence, using a significant amount of convoluted rhetoric that 'oyinbo' people are known for.

Well let's see what he has got to offer as an ex-Managing Director (Partner) of Goldman Sachs. The US Treasury has had a few love affairs with a number of former Goldman Sachs executives - not too sure where that got them - they are more interested in chasing the ever elusive 'Alpha' at any cost .
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@ paddy_lo

What linkages are you talking about here? Even when the financial markets were awash with cash was there any linkage to the real sector? You mentioned the AMC buying up toxic assets of N2trillion, what sectors of the economy did this sink into? Was it not to a large extent the same financial sector itself? The stock market at its height had about 70% of its weighting as banking stock! Is that not lunacy?? 

Secondly no one is forcing banks to lend - it is their job to lend. They are not lending because they do not have a clue about medium and long term bank lending and don't have the models in place to handle such. A banker who in probably 8 years has never given out a loan of longer than 9 months to suddenly start working on 5 - 15 year lending projects? This will require a thorough re-orientation and re-education process.

On the IPO issue, that has already been adequately dealt with above. But would just add; how do these companies get to the stage of doing IPOs in the first place? Wont they require funds to start up and operate for a while before they can be taken seriously? There is risk involved in any bank lending, but the question then is what is the risk profile of the real sector compare to the markets, especially derivatives and trading.

LTCM were into derivatives and hedging activities - which you have been going on about in your last few posts, so how can that not be what we are talking about?

We do need a robust financial market no doubt, one that would support the economy in general in assessing capital, not one that is playing and trading with itself.

paddy_lo:
The CBN should collaborate with the NSE and SEC to deepen our financial markets like i suggest above

paddy_lo:

I believe the banks gave stockbrokers loans on margin to play in the overall markets too. . .and they also could not pay when the market went down

Now as for banks buying back their own stock. . .that means they were effectivily long the market

To hedge that risky exposure(which is what banks like jpmorgan do everyday),they could have bought simple NSE 30 index puts(assuming it was available)

Designing products like this is very simple and even i can advise the CBN on how to set it up(or they can get Goldman sachs or South African banks)

they are binary options that are not too complex. . .and will help deepen our markets. . IMHO

I do hear what you are saying regarding deepening the financial markets with products to enable hedging and the likes, but the overriding preoccupation of the banks should not be these highly risky activities, especially in a developing country like Nigeria with such huge underdeveloped potential in the real sector. 

The advanced countries where these activities are rampant have huge, highly developed and adequately funded agricultural, industrial and manufacturing sectors which are the backbone of their economies. They also have an excessive amounts of capital in their economies that can be said to be at the best idle. If these countries had underdeveloped agricultural/manufacturing/industrial sectors that required substantial funding, trust me their governments would not allow their financial institutions to gamble away the limited capital their banks etc have, but would ensure that the real sectors are adequately funded first, then they can do ‘as they like’ with the remaining funds.  In fact, I would like to believe that this new found romance with derivatives etc in the western world is borne out of a system saturated with excess capital, running out of avenues to invest their funds in the real economy with the vault keys in the hands of unashamedly greedy bankers.

We do not have that luxury in Nigeria, the financial markets are cannibalising the limited funds that are available within the system on sustaining and maintaining itself by engaging in ‘socially useless activities’ at the expense of the real sector. This short-termism is an ideology that has been deeply ingrained into the Nigerian psyche, especially in the financial sector and would probably require a combined concerted economic, political, medical and religious effort to change.

No one really understands these instruments fully and the underlining pricing/financial models behind them including those that designed them. The Black-Scholes model is a prime example – it does work most of the time, but a singular event can trigger a reversal in all the gains and even more that that has accrued over a period of time – these activities lead to an unending and expensive self-created boom and bust financial loop. One of the inventors of this model Myron Scholes and Robert Merton (Scholes and Merton both 1997 Nobel Prize winners in Economics) were involved in a company called Long-Term Capital Management (a hedge fund) set up in 1994, which was initially very successful with returns approaching 50% a year initially, but in 1998 this company lost almost $5 billion and had to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve Bank (US govt.)! - this was to avoid a systemic risk and potential catastrophic failure of the financial system as a whole because they were seen as ‘royalty’ in the market at that time and had a lot of complex counter-party arrangements, since everyone wanted to do business with a company that had one of the inventors of the Black-Scholes model and another renowned economist as principals. The company eventually shut down in 2000. Goldman Sachs’s  CEO at that time lost his job over this episode.

Back to the Nigerian situation, the focus should be the real economy, the financial industry should channel its energy to helping develop this as a first priority, they can still continue to play the markets all they like as a second or third priority.
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Grudgingly agree - Lokoja would have been a better capital for a lot of reasons topmost been unity - it is a city that is not identified with any particular tribe or religion.

@ justdtruth

Have you been seconded here from the CBN? , or by the FG endorsed CBN Gov. himself? 

Please make sure you are taking note of the names of the Pro-Sanusi group in the Gold corner and the Anti-Sanusi group in the 'GL' corner. Please arrange with the office for a free 'enlightenment' programme for the 'GL' corner, to include breakfast, lunch and dinner - and for some amongst them [suggestions welcome] free hotel accommodation as well so that they can carry on the enlightenment  programme for as long as is necessary - hopefully by the end of the programme they would be in the Gold corner with the already enlightened ones .

Please deliver my/our greetings to Mr. Sanusi and keep us updated regularly . 
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In as much as power is a huge problem amongst other things, these alone cannot explain why the banks are not lending to the real sector,  I have made a comment on this earlier:

ADint:
Beyond these, is an issue that has not been brought to the fore yet - most of the crop of bankers we have in Nigeria are completely bereft of ideas! Yes there are some banks doing things in oil and gas etc, but most, beyond lending to traders, oil importers, for FMCGs and margin loans (these being the main stay of most of the banks) are unable to come up with ingenious, viable and sustainable products and services that would engage and encourage businesses and entrepreneurs to explore activities and sectors of the economy that would have a multiplier effect, and grow the economy by exploiting the vast business and investment opportunities available in virtually all sectors within Nigeria. Infact some bankers in all their years in banking have not come across products or services that are applicable to other sectors of the economy apart from those mentioned above.

So, even if funds were made available, in all probability, these bankers would just stare at each other and scratch their heads wondering what to do in the absence of their hitherto easy peasy bread and butter 30 - 90 days loan shark and 'kalo kalo' operations.

What we have is a dysfunctional banking industry; some banks built their business models on the back of short-term loan arrangements and 'paddy paddy banking' and thus employed a huge brigade of foot soldiers to service this model. This is unsustainable in the real world; the typical 2-5% margin that is on offer in the real sector is not appealing to them. The agricultural sector for example does not need require a large input of power in a lot of cases, most farm equipment and machinery use diesel or petrol and even at the apparently 'high' prices of petroleum products are still much lower that in other non oil producing countries that still churn out a good agricultural harvest and earn a decent amount of forex from exports.

Bankers have gotten so used to making easy money that it is now an herculean task for them to get down to the real business of banking - that is if they ever really knew what that was in the first place.
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@tkb417 Thank you my man for the very lavish celebration and numerous uncountable smileys - you have good insight on this issue 

I have also taken the time to bolden my original post as it seems some people probably missed it (paddy_lo, naijaking1) 

Now let me be a bit sober; a half-hearted [covering my mouth, can't help giggling] apology to funkybaby for my over-exuberance - this [size=5pt]apology[/size] is more because of your profile pic and also obviously for any distress caused  .

In fact, if they like they should introduce Mallam Banking or Redeemed Banking or Hindu Banking or even Sango Banking, as long as it is properly regulated with adequate checks and balances and is not compulsory, then it's all good!
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The N800m is quite feasible--

Thisday claims a circulation figure of 100,000 a day, @ N150 that is - N15m/day - N105m/week - N450m/month - N5.4b a year,  so quite feasible.