The Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the bankers’ committee have mopped up a total of $1.28 billion through the RT200 scheme.
This was disclosed by Iretiogo Samuel-Ogbu, the managing director of Citi Bank, at the post bankers’ committee press briefing on Thursday.
According to Samuel-Ogbu, at the end of the quarter ending September, the total amount repatriated under the RT200 program stood at $1.28 billion of which $870 million was sold on the I&E windows.
The CBN recently initiated the R200 policy in an effort to reduce exposure to volatile sources of foreign exchange and to earn more stable and sustainable inflows.
The policy is aimed at raising 200 billion dollars in Foreign Exchange (FX) earnings from non-oil proceeds over the next five years.
According to her, “the whole idea of this initiative is to diversify the source of foreign exchange from the dominant fuel and to increase the contribution of Non-Oil export and to help export oriented companies to expand their operations and capabilities.
“This initiative is beginning to bear fruit and show successes. And at the end of the quarter ending September, the total amount repatriated under the RT200 program stood at $1.28 billion of which $870 million was sold on the I&E windows, the amount in rebate paid to copec was N42 billion.
In his remark, the managing director of Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, Premier Oiwoh disclosed the domestic cards scheme of the CBN to help improve the payment system in Nigeria.
According to him, part of the proposition of the scheme is to help drive acceptance of the card, reduce operating cost and drive reliable service.
“The card will be configured to address the unique ecosystem issues and to improve payment conditions. Lower charges as it will charged in naira as against private currency.
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“We expect to customise local content for the card, content uniquely for the Nigerian landscape, it will support micro payment and credit, e-government, identity management, transportation, health sector and agriculture, to reduce dependency on cash across the landscape and promote cashless initiatives promoted by the central bank.
He noted that the operational effectiveness of the card is expected to be robust and to drive innovation, standardization and improve fraud management and better dispute resolution process around the card operating system.
The card, according to him, will be a platform under which other products will be layered across, ranging from debit card, virtual card, non interest card, identity card among others.
“It will improve sovereignty and security of data which is locally based. It will also help to drive financial inclusion across the federation.”
Kafialat Araoye, the MD of Lotus bank who reiterated the MPC’s decision to raise the monetary policy rate by 150 basis points as well as the cash reserve requirement from 27.5 percent to 32.5 percent noted that the banking industry is a good channel for the transmission of the monetary policy.
According to her, the increase in CRR will help in demand and supply, as it is expected to mop up excess money in the system to reduce pressure on foreign exchange.
“It is a very good move to ensure that all efforts being made in the past to curb inflation come to fruition. When deposits are mop up there will be less money in supply and it’s best practice to reduce pressure on foreign exchange.
“It will also ensure that the excess funds in the current account is kept safe and will only be released when it is truly needed, so as a bank we are in support and we expect that everyone across the country should understand the move behind the decision that has been taken.
Speaking on the initiative of the CBN to set up a centre to address issues of cyber security Araoye noted that cyber insecurity is one of the unintended consequences of automation and digitization.
According to her, the vision of the banking industry is to come up with countermeasures to mitigate risk, prevent cyber attack, and to deter and preempt cyber threats.
“A cyber security centre is being built and assembled to do this. We believe that having this approach as an industry will help to mitigate the vulnerability and risk of cyber attack on information sharing across the industry.
“And if there are cyber attacks, having that kind of coordinated effort will help minimize damage and enhance recovery time. And this cyber security centre is very much in line with best practices.
“As it is seen around the world where you bring professionals from information security, investigation, technology, infrastructure to do strategic intelligence and share the information industry wise. It is very Ok to see that we are taking this kind of action and this action is very much in line with world best practice,” she said.
