CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam  Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Thursday  called for  the deepening of the Nigerian capital for it to  play its role of providing long-term capital for infrastructural  funding and take pressure off  the banks.

Speaking at the  2012 forum of Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN) in Lagos,  Sanusi declared that  there is no way an economy that needs long-term funding for infrastructure, power, agriculture, mortgages among others, would depend only on banks.
According to him, the  financial system so much depended on the  banks that Nigerians only go the banks for assistance, saying that there is no way the  infrastructure could developed with banks’ loans.

His words: “There is no way an economy that needs long-term  money for infrastructure, money for power, money for  agriculture, money for mortgages, money for  personal consumption, cars and others will have just one type of institutions(banks). And the banks are the only place Nigerians go for assistance. 

If you want to build the roads, you go to banks. If you want to build power plants you go to banks. Depositors’ funds are not for venture capital. They are not  for private equities. They are not for building roads, dams and bridges.  We need to see how to deepen the capital market. How the capital market can be made to  contribute to the funding of infrastructure. How the pension assets can be put into infrastructure so that banks can focus on the core area of businesses,” the CBN boss said.
Sanusi commended BDAN for its collaboration with regulators and other stakeholders in ensuring a sustainable banking industry in the country.

Meanwhile, trading at the stock market closed on positive note as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index went up by 0.04 per cent to close at 26,356, 63. Market capitalisation added N3 billion to close at N8.399 trillion.