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BoG closely monitoring Nigeria banking crisis
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Jan 26, Ghanadot - The Bank of Ghana (BoG) says it is
closely monitoring activities in the Nigerian banking sector
to ensure that the crisis there does not spread to Ghana.
The Governor of the bank, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Ammisah-Arthur,
said Ghana was having enormous support from the Nigerian
authorities for ensuring that the various Nigerian banks
with interest in the country operated within the local
regulatory framework and not having any contagion effects on
the local banking industry.
The Nigerian Central Bank had to inject 620 billion naira
($4.2 billion) to keep the country's banks afloat and avert
a total collapse of the banking industry.
It is an achingly familiar vocabulary for the global
recession - bailout, credit crunch, stimulus - except that
Nigeria's banking crisis has little to do with credit
default swaps or subprime mortgages.
Mr Ammisah-Arthur said the likelihood oŁ a spillover because
of the connections was possible, but noted that the Ghanaian
central bank was on top of the issue and that "the
co-operation by the Nigerian counterpart was positive".
"The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria is keen on
ensuring that what happened in Nigeria does not happen in
Ghana, a move that is intended to avoid any embarrassment,"
he said.
He said while the BoG had not shut its doors to the
licensing of new banks, it would be guided by the need to
ensure a balance in attracting banks from North America, the
only region in the world that had no representation in the
Ghanaian banking sector.
So far, the country has the complement of banks from West
Africa, North and Southern, Africa, Asia and Europe, but has
none coming from the North Americas, a balance the central
bank wants to achieve.
Ghana amended its banking laws two years ago to allow for
offshore banking operations in the country. Two years after
implementing the concept of International Financial Services
Centre (IFSC), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) came out to say Ghana stood the
chance of inviting 'bad' money being laundered into the
system.
In response to this worry, the governor said the central
bank was also reviewing the operations of Barclays Bank, the
only bank that currently operates the offshore banking
concept, in order to ensure that it stayed within the ambit
of the law, and that their operations would guide the bank
on its general attitude towards offshore banking.
The BoG was also working at resolving the inability of banks
to issue coins to clients and their (the coins) general low
usage in the country, with possible solutions, including the
use of coins vending machine.
Ghanadot
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