The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations yesterday backed the plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to recapitalize the commercial banks
It described the move is good for the economy, adding that it would make the banks stronger and attract investors to the country.
The coalition, comprising the Constitutional Rights Advocate Initiative (CRAI), Movement for Nigeria Restructuring (MfNR), Centre for Social and Economic Rights (CSER), Committee for the Protection of People’s Mandates (CPPM), and Cadrell Advocacy Centre, hailed the decision at a press conference in Lagos.
The leader of the coalition, Alesta Wilcox, who is also the past chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Lagos Branch, said banks in Nigeria are now weak, thereby discouraging investors from investing in the country.
He said thd5 recapitalization would make the banks healthy, stonger and recruit more staff.
Wilco said recapitalisation will halt the plot by vested interests benefiting from the weakness banking sector to sabotage it.
He added: “We are a coalition of civil society organisations. Our role is to act as watchdogs for the government in the interest of the Nigerian people.
“We want to alert the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Department of State Services (DSS), the Bankers Committee, and the Nigerian media to an organised plot by some vested interest within the Nigerian Banking System to begin to orchestrate a diversionary gas-lighting campaign to stop the proposed banking sector reforms using some faceless civil society organisations who will begin to make preposterous claims and allegations against some Nigerians who are critical to the success of the planned banking recapitalization programme.
“We also have credible intelligence that they intend to make some unsubstantiated allegations against the current CBN Governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, and Mr Olawale Edun, the Finance Minister and Coordinating,” Wilcox alleged.
Wilcox the goal of the vested interests is to either delay or force the CBN to drop the ongoing reforms of the banking sector so as to elongate the stay of their Pay Masters at the helm of affairs at some of the sick banks that require the most recapitalization.
Wilcox said recapitalization programmes required a forensic audit of the loan books, stressing that what these vested interests wanted to be unveiled but would rather have the banks left “in their sick state so as to prevent the truth from being unearthed.
He said: “It is germane to say that some of the banks that require recapitalization are the very ones in need of the injection of capital off the back of the recapitalization programme. But these vested interests would rather leave the banks in their sick state so as to prevent the truth from being unearthed.
“Recapitalization programmes, as you well know, require a forensic audit of the loan books. This is what they do not want,” he said.
“In the case of one of the banks, the ages of some of the non-performing loans (NPLs) will shock the Nigerian public. They date back to the 1970s, with interest capitalised running into decades.
“But thankfully, there has been a successful sale of the debt to a company, as it is done the world over. This has received a ‘No Objection’ verdict from AMCON and has been approved by the CBN.
“But the vested interests do not want the fresh injection of capital into the bank. Why? They will lose their ravenous positions to new executives who will be appointed by the investors.
“If indeed they care about the interest of the bank in question, why don’t they want new capital injected to save the bank? It is like the parent of an anaemic child rejecting a blood donation even when the doctors have certified the blood to be clean,” he added.
