A former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Agriculture Limited, Dr. Mohammed Santuraki, has stated that the banking sector is the live wire of Nigeria’s economy.
According to The Punch, he called for urgent reforms in the banking sector in order to enable President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to actualize the administration’s goal of revamping the economy.
Santuraki advised Tinubu not to rely entirely on advisers while adopting the corrective measures intended to rebuild the country’s economy.
“The Banking Sector is the Livewire of the Economy, and as such, I believe reasonably well that one cannot avoid challenges once in a while.”
He said that some of our banks are opening offices abroad and growing to other parts of Africa, which shows the level of maturity that exists in that industry.
“Therefore, the regulators shouldn’t give up. As far as the banking sector is concerned, they should maintain their strict control.”
The banking industry expert maintained, “There is another element that remains largely unregulated – that is the Fintechs,”
He maintained that the CBN and other regulators need to include Fintechs in its regulatory framework because they are expanding as well.
Similarly, Santuraki encouraged the Federal Government to set up mechanisms that would assure the CBN’s return to its original role, away from serving as a conduit for intervention schemes.
“First, there was the bursary lender pumping money,” he said. That is their strength, hence in my opinion, CBN should stick to their traditional mission.
He kicked against intervention but not on the scale the CBN was doing it because insiders were the suppliers to these companies, and these companies were also run by insiders, and Santuraki insisted that it was very messy.
Santuraki, who until recently served as the immediate past pro-Chancellor and chairman of the governing council of IBB University Lapai, the Niger State University, spoke out in favor of increased funding for government-owned universities in order to produce higher-quality results regarding the crisis afflicting the country’s education system.
“In Nigeria, the central union for publicly owned universities serves as our system of higher education. Not everywhere is like that. Since some states particularly those in the South-west have three institutions, the unions there are typically university-based, which is the model I have been advocating for.”
He added that universities should make use of modern technology to reduce delivery costs, stating that after implementing all these online initiatives, citizens will have easier access to education.
Concerning the student loan scheme, he claimed that such preparations ought to be put on hold for the time being. Instead, after six months, the government should wait for the effects of the removal of fuel subsidies and the rise in currency rates that followed the unification of the multiple exchange rates regime to become apparent.
