The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has recovered 89.2 billion naira for more than 23,000 customers of commercial banks across the country.
The Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele made the disclosure at a two-day harmonized sensitization seminar tagged ‘CBN Fair’ on the theme “Promoting financial stability and economic development” held via zoom for the people of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States in south-south Nigeria.
Emefiele, who was represented at the seminar by the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Osita Nwanisobi, said the CBN was committed to executing interventions that would speak to the needs of the people.
According to him, the Consumer Protection Department of the bank assiduously examined the thousands of complaints from customers and ensured that the monies were returned.
He said, “the recoveries were made basically based on the complaints that individuals raised that oftentimes borders on issues of charges. Once these complaints are received at the Consumer Protection Department, they go all out to investigate. After the investigation, when the complaints are found to be true, the department insists that the banks refund the monies to the individual(s). That is what happened.”
The CBN governor further explained that the essence of the CBN’s engagement with the people especially youths was to “create awareness; to let the people know the CBN’s policies, our interventions and our programmes as well as get feedback from them on how the policies are impacting on their lives and businesses.
“More importantly, we also want to build confidence in our financial system and to disabuse all of these rumours about distress in the system. There is nothing like that,” Emefiele stated.
He also explained that the apex bank conducted banking examinations on commercial institutions across the country, which results indicated that the financial system is stable.
“Our financial system is resilient and safe and sound. But, we want to engage with the people.”
The governor reiterated his commitment to making the apex bank a peoples’ centred institution by regular engagements and sensitization.
Intervention schemes
On the intervention the CBN has for Nigerians, the governor said that there were about 37 schemes and programmes targeted at fulfilling the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s mission of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
“We have about 37 interventions in the Central Bank of Nigeria and these interventions are targeted. Like the coronavirus experience, which affected the global economy as it was shutdown, families and businesses were affected and so the CBN had to roll out some interventions to mitigate the adverse impact of coronavirus on livelihoods,” he averred.
He further explained, “the interventions are created based on gaps identified in the economy to help rejig the real economy.”
Caring for our currency
In a presentation, Daramola Atanda of the Consumer Protection Department, urged customers to patronize one of the more than 800,000 certified agent banks in the country.
Also speaking via zoom from Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, Amina Abdulmalik of the Currency Operations Department advised Nigerians to handle the naira with care as it remains a national pride.
She said, “our naira notes are supposed to last for about two years after printing, but due to poor handling, some of them do not last for more than three months.”
There were goodwill messages from the central bank’s branch controllers in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.
The seminar is expected to end on Saturday after engagements with special farmers’ groups drawn from the two states.
Emmanuel Ukoh
