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“Anybody
can say anything against the way I handle the business, but the major
thing they need to remember is that I have a job to do to save the
banking system and protect depositors’ funds. Nigeria is one of the few
countries in the world that has had a banking crisis and is being
resolved without anybody losing a kobo. This is the first time it is
happening in the history of the Nigerian banking system.

“In the last one
year, there have been big issues, particularly under-capitalisation and
poor governance, yet not a single banker defaulted on its obligations
to either depositors or creditors. That, for me, overrides every other
consideration, because banks are supposed to hold depositors’ funds on
absolute trust. Would anybody deny that that has not been achieved?

“Many people told
us we would not be able to get legislation to support what we are
doing. But, we have proved them wrong. But we got it even at a time the
country was going through a most difficult political period. We now
have a rare opportunity through the AMCON Act to recapitalise the banks.

“Nobody is saying
there are no difficulties and challenges, but the important thing is
that we have been able to change the mindset of the entire banking
system, which people had thought their balance sheet was for
speculation than for activities that would boost the economy. We have
shown that if one is imaginative and bold enough, one can deliver
single digits long term money to the productive sector, as we have done
with the mobilisation of the 24 banks to pool together about
N130billion for manufacturers to access at the rate of about seven
percent. Before now, that could not be done in this country.

“We are providing
imaginative solutions to long term cheap money for the development of
critical infrastructure in the power sector. We are making significant
progress towards signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) on unlocking the
agricultural financial value chain. We are working towards getting
finance into the different value chain to boost agriculture.

“My challenge is to
sustain the momentum, to lay a solid foundation for a new banking
system that actually does what it is supposed to do – lend to the real
economy and create jobs and employment and not just make money. If
there is anything we have achieved, it is that the bankers have started
thinking of themselves not as bankers, but as Nigerians.

“This means they cannot sit back to complain that the environment is
not conducive for them to lend to manufacturers because there is no
power and other infrastructure, or that is not profitable. The next
generation of bankers may not do all these. Our generation would have
to do them, so that the next generation would simply find the projects.
That is why we are doing what we are doing.”