Anything it will take to internationalize Nigerian businesses must be done if we expect to avoid further economic paralysis: “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has formalized partnerships with countries hosting Nigerian banks’ subsidiaries by signing Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to bolster regulatory coordination and ensure the safe and compliant operation of these institutions both locally and internationally.”
But it is important to note that the solution is not just regulatory. The Nigerian state must improve the platforms upon which companies can do business and grow. With insecurity, political rascality, and FX shifts, these banks even as they go global will continue to struggle at the global arena.
One bank in South Africa, Standard Bank Group, can buy all the banks in the Nigerian stock exchange, and still have a change. But why is Standard Group thriving? It has a relatively modernized economy with layers of deeper economic productivity. To position our banks and our economy, Nigeria’s central bank must work to see how Nigeria can evolve into that level.
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A few years ago, American banks around Goldman Sachs came together and said they would invest and seed companies that would become their customers in decades. I want Nigeria’s apex bank to pay attention to how SMEs in Nigeria can grow to bigger companies.
Nigeria’s market is untapped and that means we must not be sold on the illusion that because we’re seeing our banks’ logos outside Nigeria that they have arrived. They need to do big things in the nation and hold titles for rebuilding an economy that seems to be on an economic miry clay. How we regulate to get banks and other sectors to do that is the job of the moment in Nigeria.
CBN Signs MoUs with Host Countries to Regulate Nigerian Banks’ Subsidiaries Abroad
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Our growth is tied to effective and comprehensive education and strict adherence to Rule of Law. When I say effective and comprehensive education, I do not mean coaching kids to score A’s in English, Mathematics and other subjects. If you don’t nurture and groom your citizens to think Nigeria first, you will continue losing. Right now most Nigerians think and behave like immigrants in their own country. With such people as the vast majority, the land remains a walking disaster.
As for strick adherence to Rule of Law, nothing great and enduring ever happens where you have rascals, certified criminals and misfits dominating your political and economic leadership. The level of lawlessness and criminality is so dizzying that it easily neutralizes best of intentions. If the Judiciary has completely lost relevance and its way, then it makes no sense hammering on productivity and growth.
Fix education system and Judiciary, and then we can come back to have proper conversations about innovation and national competitiveness.