Foreign investment should address skills, infrastructure development – CBN
| Kingsley Moghalu, Deputy Governor, FSS, CBN |
Dr. Moghalu stated this on Monday, when he hosted a team of foreign investors and their Nigerian technical partners at the CBN headquarters. The ten-man delegation led by Chief Tony Osagie Hicks of Anita Energy Ltd, informed the Deputy Governor that the purpose of the team’s visit was to bring massive investment in the region of 100 billion dollars to the country.
This is expected to add value to the transformation agenda of the oil and gas infrastructure, power generation, fast speed train, telecommunications and the establishment of a Merchant Bank. He added that this would be done in partnership with APEC Logic Investment Limited, an Australian funding investment partner and SINOPEC, one of the largest oil and gas corporations in China.
Moghalu informed the delegation that the CBN had undertaken far reaching reforms of the banking sector to make it strong, resilient and able to serve the needs of the real economy which was a total departure from the past where some individuals enriched themselves to the detriment of the economy.
He reiterated that one of the four pillars of the banking reform aims to enhance the quality of banks and also establish financial stability through the creation of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) which absorbs the toxic assets of the deposit money banks.
He observed that the banks now have a clean balance sheet and are able to lend to the economy again. The third pillar, according to the Deputy Governor, is to facilitate the evolution of a healthy financial system through the new banking model that categorizes them into commercial, merchant and specialised banks.
The merchant banks, he said were established to ring – fence depositors fund from trading, while the fourth ensures that the banks contribute to real economy. Dr. Moghalu equally informed the team of investors that there was a confluence between the banking reforms and the desire of the investors to establish merchant banks expected to facilitate concrete investment in Nigeria.
This he observed would strengthen the relationship between the financial sector and real economy, adding that the Bank as economic adviser to the government had advocated for the structural reform of the economy.
The Deputy Governor promised the delegation that the Bank would provide the needed support to ensure that the investment plans bear fruits and process the banking license application, provided the requirements are met.
Vanguard
