A couple of months ago, there was some panic in financial circles as Heritage Bank shut its doors. The history of banking in Nigeria is ripe for a stand alone book. That should make for an interesting read.
For decades, we had only about 5 major banks. After liberalization, banks exploded and businesses began to have access to loans. It did not take long for many of them to begin to go rogue.
Many of them were doing well in niche markets until Professor Charles Soludo invented his bank consolidation program which wiped out thousands of jobs. What beats any right thinking Nigerian is the level of venom displayed by people appointed into important offices.
It does not take much time for them to become tin-gods. As with Charles Soludo, so with Sanusi and more recently, Emefiele who took things to heights no one ever imagined possible with a serving Central banker.
He abandoned his core job to run for president without first resigning. As Nigeria goes, we all know it’s only going to be a matter of time before he becomes a sitting Senator of the Federal Republic. He can pay for a seat.
Meanwhile, we must congratulate the current CBN administration for throwing a lifeline to the Unity Bank in a managed “merger” with Providus Bank. The merger should give Providus some brick and mortar assets which they need to achieve a national spread and protect jobs that would otherwise have been lost.
John James.
Correspondent,
Egogonewshub.com
