Abuja — The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido, has totally disowned all the Nigerian owned banks operating in Sierra Leone.The governor who was on a visit to Sierra Leone this week,informed a cross section of newsmen in the Bank of Sierra Leone Auditorium, Sam Bangura Building in Freetown, that all the said Nigerian banks operating in Sierra Leone were regulated and monitored by the Central Bank of Sierra Leone and not by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He said these banks might be owned and managed by Nigerian nationals in and out of Sierra Leone and having their Headquarters in Nigeria, but that does not imply they are owned by Nigeria or referred to as Nigerian banks. The governor stressed that the Central Bank of Nigeria would not shoulder any pitfall of such banks.Speaking on his visit to Sierra Leone, the governor described his visit as aiming to appraise the governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Mr. Sheku Sambadeen Sesay and other stakeholders, of recent developments in the banking sector in Nigeria.

Earlier, the governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Sheku Sambadeen Sesay informed newsmen that Governor Lamido Sanusi was undertaking missions to countries, including Sierra Leone, where there was a large presence of banks with Headquarters in Nigeria, to appraise them on developments in the banking sector in Nigeria, and likely implications in these countries.