BNW

B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News

... banking system is a cartel – says director Director of Research at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Joseph Nnanna has said that the Nigerian banking system is a cartel where about 10 banks account for 53 per cent of total assets held by banks in the country. As at September 2004, Nigeria has a total of eight deposit money banks (DMB) with about 3.382 branches spread across the country. Nnanna, who was represented by Mr. Charles Modi, told participants at the seminar organised by the CBN for finance correspondents and business editors in Bauchi last week that prior to the introduction of universal banking in Nigeria in 2001, the DMBs were segmented into commercial and merchant banks engaged in both retail and wholesale banking businesses. “Structurally, the Nigerian banking industry is poligopolistic in nature with 10 banks currently accounting for 53 per cent of total assets,” Nnanna said. He said that the 10 banks also accounted for 54.3 per cent of the total deposits/liabilities, 44.2 per cent of total credit and 35.1 per cent of capital and reserves. The director also criticized the number of bank offices in the country when compared with population density, saying that Nigeria “currently has bank office/population density of one bank office to 30,432 persons,” he said. He said that the DMBs were the major players in the money market with growth in the banks’ investment portfolio exerting significant influence on the performance of the economy. “For instance, their total assets as a proportion of the GDP grew significantly from 18.8 per cent in 1970 to 65.9 per cent in 1996, but declined to 42.4 cent in 2003,” he said. Nnanna attributed the decline between 1986 and 2003 which manifested in the distress syndrome that characterized the banking industry to the deregulation policy and development in the capital segments of the financial markets. MORE ON BUSINESS...

	BNW News
Voice of Biafra | Biafra World | Biafra Online | Biafra Web | MASSOB | Biafra Forum | BLM | Biafra Consortium
	© 2001 BNW BiafraNigeriaWorld  Privacy Policy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by ACENetwork ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Axiom PSI Yam Festival Series, Iri Ji Nd'Igbo the Kola-Nut Series,Nigeria Masterweb