BANKS TO SET UP NEW LINKAGE MODEL.

At the 327th Bankers Committees meeting, held Thursday in Abuja at the Central Bank of Nigeria headquarters, the Director Banking Supervision of CBN, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, said that an agreement had been reached with both the commercial banks and the micro finance banks to set up a new linkage model.

This was contained in a briefing to press men at the end of the meeting.

Mrs Tokunbo Martins, said that the linkage model will enable commercial banks lend to micro finance banks, who in turn lend's to customers in remote parts on the country."

It is expected that this model will enhance financial inclusion, which at the moment is at 60.5% but is expected to increase by 8% at the end of 2016.

The CBN has given targets to banks in the areas of savings, credits, access point amongst a few to help increase the financial inclusion.

The MD/CEO of United Bank of Africa(UBA), Mr Philips Oduoza, said that a new frame work for the foreign exchange rates is being put in place.

" we want to make sure that we come up with a model that is very robust and comprehensive, that would be able to address the major exchange issues that we are dealing with. To this extent, we have gotten a lot of imput from various stakeholders and this inputs are being distilled to make a robust and flexible exchange rate."

Once this is ready, we will adopt it and start running with it. We believe that it is important for us to get it right and we don't want to have to go back to the drawing broad."

Mrs Bola A desola, MD/CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, stated that banks stand on the issue of mass termination of jobs.

She said " banks understand what it is like for people not to be employed and we are looking at ways of ensuring that we minimize the exit from our institutions. We have noted the market sentiments and am sure that going forward there would be difference."

But we must recognize that there would be reasons why people would leave the institution such as fraud and other vices."

On the issue of the banks role in economic development of the country and how they could stimulate further support and credit to the private sector, she said that banks have discussed the successful anchor of the borrower program in agriculture and are willing to replicate the framework in other industries in the country, So as to help stimulate SME Growth.

" I am pleased to say that the National Collateral registry frame work has been put in place. They have began to engage stakeholders and we should the role out to be available to banks soon to register moveable assets that they lend against."

On Communication and financial literacy, the MD/CEO Union Bank, Mr Emaka Emuwa, said that the banks would do much to support the targets so that people would know more about what the banks were doing.

" we felt that it is important to engage the media, help the media raise it's own level of financial understanding, so that the public at large could be able to improve their own financial literacy, which will enable us communicate perspective, get balanced perspective into the public.

The bankers committee meeting is made up of chief executive officers of deposit money banks, the director and top officials of the apex bank.