From Uche Usim, Abuja
Amid growing concerns over Nigerian banks’ capacity to survive in the face of raging local and global headwinds, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has declared them sound and resilient, and urged the banking public not to entertain any fears.
CBN’s spokesperson, Mrs Sidi Ali Hakama, in a statement on Tuesday, dismissed media reports that some licensed commercial banks in the country recently failed the regulator’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) for international authorisation.
She said: “We wish to clarify that the Nigerian banking industry remains resilient as key financial soundness indicators were within the regulatory thresholds as captured in the CBN’s most recent Economic Report of 2023
“Furthermore, the CBN is engaging with various critical stakeholders to sustain the level of confidence in the Nigerian financial sector.
“We, therefore, appeal to Nigerians to disregard the media reports listing banks as failing the Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) stress test for international authorisation as the report did not emanate from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)”.
Mrs Hakama’s assurances come as the banking public fears the capacity of the deposit money banks to meet the soon-to-be-determined minimum capital base being mooted by the CBN.
However, some commercial banks are currently holding merger talks to emerge stronger to buoy a $1 trillion economy.