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Banks clear N895bn financial instruments in two months � NIBSS
Oluyinka Akintunde, Abuja
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Automated Clearing System, Mr. O.P. Lawal, has confirmed that a total of N895 billion worth of financial instruments were cleared by banks in the months of April and May 2004.
The new settlement banks scheme took off on April 1, with seven settlement banks clearing financial instruments on behalf of 68 other banks known as agent banks.
The NIBSS boss, who confirmed this in a progress report on NACS released on Sunday in Abuja, noted that the banks cleared 1.044 million financial instruments, particularly cheques, in the two months.
He disclosed that three new banks joined the Clearing House in the months under review, thereby bringing the total number of active participants to 75 banks as at end of May 2004.
�A total of 1,044,967 clearing items valued at N895 billion were processed through the Automated Clearing infrastructure in the months of April and May 2004. This translates to a daily average of 25,000 items worth N22 billion,� he stated.
Lawal also confirmed that the volume of NIBSS Electronic Funds Transfer instrument, presented for clearing rose during the two months.
According to him, over 460 NEFT items valued at N117 million were processed in the two months.
�We shall soon launch a publicity campaign for the NEFT, to increase its awareness among the banking public � individuals and corporates bodies alike. We implore all banks to publicise the NEFT service too.
�The banks are required to provide materials for processing the NEFT instrument at branches, and to train relevant staff. This way, bank customers would receive good service as they respond to our publicity programmes,� he added.
On the inter-bank operations, the NIBSS chief executive officer disclosed that the closing time for inter-bank operations had been reviewed to 3.30pm on Mondays and 3.00pm from Tuesday to Friday.
The change in the closing time, he explained, was to enable treasurers move funds as a result of the new clearing settlement process.
It would be recalled that the CBN had appointed seven settlement banks on behalf of other banks. The settlement banks include: First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Zenith International Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Standard Trust Bank and Afribank Nigeria Plc.
First Bank of Nigeria and United Bank for Africa topped the list of settlement banks with the highest number of agent banks of 16 and 14, respectively.
Union Bank of Nigeria is in charge of the clearing of cheques of 13 banks; Guaranty Trust Bank, nine;
Standard Trust Bank, eight, while Zenith and Afribank are settlement banks to four agent banks.
All the settlement banks had paid the sum of N15 billion each as collateral before their approval by the CBN, while the 68 agent banks paid the sum of N250 million each as agency fee.
The Punch, Monday July 05, 2004
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