Banks To Support Govt With Road Projects Fund
The Bankers Committee has said that the industry will fund road projects and provide support for the Federal Government in bridging the infrastructural gap in the country.
This was disclosed during a press briefing after the Bankers’ Committee meeting in Lagos on Tuesday.
Director, Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Nigeria, Hassan Bello, said, “Like I said earlier, the government has invited the committee of bankers to also consider the possibility of Public Private Partnership in bridging the infrastructural gap and it is to that extent that the committee considered coming in to see how we can finance about four roads.”
The Managing Director, FSDH Merchant Bank, Mrs Hamda Ambah, said at the committee’s meeting, the CBN and the bankers agreed that the government alone could not provide all the infrastructure in the country.
She said it was important for those in the private sector to work with government to ensure that the infrastructure that the country needed to move ahead were provided.
“With that in mind, what was agreed was that we create a small committee among the CEOs to work with the CBN to identify those roads where we would like to participate and come up with a framework which we would share with government and once we have an agreement, we would be able to forge ahead,” she said.
The Managing Director, GTBank, Segun Agbaje, while speaking on the Loan to Deposit Ratio policy, said, lending and credit were needed to stimulate any economy.
When the LDR was first fixed at 60 per cent, he said, the bankers thought it was monumental but now, it was 65 per cent.
He said, “I think this is very critical to not only in the banking industry but to Nigerians as a whole that this continues. From our perspective, this has been one of the most successful things that were done in 2019 when you look at how much credit that was availed in six months period.
“Consumer credit has grown very well. The corporates who have always had credit have also been availed more credit and for any economy to grow, the Small and Medium Enterprises and retail segment must be availed with credit and I think the LDR is doing that very well.
“I think most banks are closed to 60 per cent which as the director said we will push to try to get ourselves the remainder of the five per cent between now and the end of first quarter, and may be at the worst, by half year.”
