Efforts to ensure Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) play by the rules are yielding significant results as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has recovered over N50 billion excessive charges.
Some banks have consistently over-charged their customers for services provided, despite CBN’s repeated warnings against the practice.
Acting Director, Corporate Communications of the apex bank, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said at the on-going Abuja International Trade Fair, yesterday, that excessive charges must be stopped as the practice was against the campaign for banking inclusion and fair deal.
He urged the banking public to promptly report incidences of excessive charges, when discovered, to the Consumer Protection Department of the CBN for action.
The CBN, he said, has established the necessary mechanism to reverse every form of unwholesome practice by DMBs.
Anchor Borrowers receive N43b
On the Anchor Borrowers Programme, ABP, Mr. Okoroafor revealed that N43.92 billion had been given to farmers across the country.
According to him, the ABP has changed the face of agriculture in the country, as farming has become a serious business for many people.
He disclosed that over 200,000 small holder farmers from 29 states had benefited from the programme in which participants are not only given loans but also matched with off-takers to buy their produce.
Under the ABP, he added that eight commodities, including rice, wheat, maize, cotton, soyabeans, poultry, cassava and groundnuts were being cultivated on 233,000 hectares of farmland.
This, according to him, is in addition to a fish farming component of the programme.
The programme, Okorafor, added, has added value to the policy of the apex bank not to sell foreign exchange to importers of 41 items it announced earlier.
According to him, importing goods that Nigerians can produce is only providing jobs for other nationals at the detriment of Nigerians and the nation’s economy.