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Bankers� committee to
review SMIEIS guidelines
By Esan
Sunday
Snr
Finance Correspondent
After almost three years of
asking banks to set aside ten percent of their pre-tax profit to fund the
Small and Medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme (SMIEIS), the Bankers
Committee on Tuesday resolved to review the guidelines of the scheme to
make it more accessible.
A total 82 banks reported a
cumulative N28.8 billion set aside in September, and by October, only 40
percent of the amount had been disbursed to the end
users.
In terms of investment, 56
banks committed N9.3 billion in 173 projects in the
period.
Also on Tuesday, Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Charles Soludo threatened to deal with any bank
that misinforms the public to attract funds.
He expressed displeasure at
the high level of misinformation and unjustifiable claims reeled out by
financial houses, saying the CBN would not hesitate to publicly denounce
such and that the attitude of the banks may trigger a more stringent application of the
rules on the placing of advertisements by them.
Daily Independent reported on
Monday that the misleading of investors by banks would be discussed at the
Bankers Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Briefing newsmen after it,
Standard Trust Bank (STB) Chief Executive Tony Elumelu, attributed the
planned review of the SMIEIS guidelines to the concern of the banking
community on the low disbursement of the fund.
He said more Nigerians would
have access to it after new guidelines would have been
released.
The Bankers Committee resolved
to implement the recommendation of the committee set up to review the
payment system in order to make it more efficient.
STB and Accenture are about to
establish a private sector led credit bureau which would provide detailed
information on all bank customers.
The data base, according to
Imala, would not be limited to the financial institutions, but would be
provided non-financial institutions, such as the insurance sector and
telecommunications, to ensure
that only those who are credit worthy are granted
loans.
On efforts to discourage the
issuance of dud cheques, the CBN disclosed that all the necessary
arrangements have been concluded to post names of offenders on websites
where banks would have easy access to them.
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