Experts call for reform in the banking sector

Experts in banking and communications industries in Nigeria have called for a reform in the Nigerian banking sector including the Central Bank of Nigeria itself to enable banks respond to the needs of their customers.

 

Leading the discussions at the maiden edition of BRANDish Meeting of Minds, an industry dialogue session held in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer, Proshare Nigeria, Mr. Femi Awoyemi and his Prima Garnet Africa counterpart, Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi, called for a general simplification of the operating models of banks in Nigeria to reduce costs and meet rising customer expectations.

 

Awoyemi, whose topic was ‘Liquidity and credit portfolio management: How Nigerian banks can win anew’, said the current structure of the apex bank makes it function more in banking system supervision while failing to lend itself to effective management and supervision of the economy.

 

He said the history of the CBN had made it “over-protective of the banking system as against its primary duty of managing the overall integrity, growth and prospects of the national economy.

 

“The CBN needs to redefine its role as an economist rather than a ‘senior’ bank to other banks in the system. The job of the central bank is not just managing the banks. In the case of Nigeria, the central bank is actually functioning like another bank, sometimes doing things like donating money to charities as if goodwill is a critical deliverable.”

 

Lolu Akinwunmi, a former chairman of the Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON) whose paper was titled “Product Portfolio Management and Branding – The Future of the Retail Banking Ecosystem in Nigeria” said he was worried that marketers of banking products today have a simplistic understanding of their customers and a vastly complex product set. - The Authority