5 October 2009
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, weekend in Istanbul, Turkey said the Federal Government had no plans to nationalise ailing banks in the country.
The CBN had in the last three months embarked on sweeping measures in the banking sector as a result of which eight chief executives were removed and N620 billion injected in the industry to prop up their operations.
Muhtar gave the indication while fielding questions from newsmen at the ongoing 2009 IMF/World Bank meeting.
"What we are talking about is an interim measure that allows the government to take control of these banks, " he said.
Muhtar said major decisions had already been taken to restore confidence in the country's financial system.
"We have taken major decisions to restore confidence in the financial system and the Minister of Finance and the CBN governor are working very closely together to ensure that going forward there is a smooth transition, " he said.
He said the decision to buoy the operations of the banks was a joint effort of the economic team in the country, giving an assurance that the CBN had the full backing of the Federal Government.
"We have a core team of the Chief Economic Adviser, the CBN Governor and the Minister of Finance and the Minister of National Planning, who are looking at these issues on an ongoing basis.
"We have full consensus in terms of the measures to be taken and we have been giving assurances that the implementation of these measures would be supported fully and promptly, " he added.
On giving Africa more voice in the operations of the IMF and the World Bank, Muhtar said Africa was given an opportunity to make a presentation at the G-20 meeting that was held in Pittsburg, U. S.
"This year actually, we have been given an opportunity to make contributions as a group of African ministers and CBN governors, which is what we call the C10, " he said.
According to him, the C10 is spearheaded by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
He said the C10 was able to interact with key decision makers, such as the Prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown, who had an initiative to provide input into giving the African countries more leverage.
"At the moment the key concern is to ensure that the principles are accepted. We are very delighted to see a softening of view in this regard and the second stage is to decide on representation.
"The basic principle is that we want an effective representation and the capacity to make contributions, " he said.
Muhtar told newsmen that Nigeria had to fall back on its excess crude account to augment dwindling revenue.
He said the government would still resort to the excess crude to tackle the credit crunch with additional stimulus spending.
"We will be making additional withdrawals from the excess crude and we will take steps to fast-track budget implementation, " he said.
Muhtar said the executive arm would go to the National Assembly for permission to channel some of the resources captured in the 2009 budget to areas that would yield quick results.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister featured on a joint press conference with other African Ministers of Finance such as Mr Charles Kofi Diby, Cote D'Ivoire; Sufian Ahmed, Ethiopia; and Abdoulaye Diop, Senegal..
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