• is good for the economy
THE Bankers Committee – the elite club of banks' chief executives and the apex bank – at their recent retreat in Enugu, went beyond the more familiar ruing on the state of the economy. It came up with what appears as the most ambitious initiative yet, to give the endangered real sector a shot in the arm.
The bankers' plan to float development bonds to finance infrastructure in critical areas of power, agriculture, transportation and small and medium-scale enterprises in the country. To create the institutional imperative to make the goal happen, they agreed to revitalise the investment functions of banks by investing in capacity-building for investment bankers –as part of the wider strategy to prepare them for the new focus on infrastructure financing.
And, recognising that their plan would come to naught without legislative and regulatory changes, they want the approval of the Federal Government – through the apex bank – for the necessary amendments to the statutes and regulations for the economic revitalisation measures.
The plan, if anything, comes across as fresh and different from the usual stuff in financial gerrymandering. It seems a long way from the time when the bankers, in their attempt to rationalise their indifference to the infrastructure sector, insist on rolling out dreary figures of how much they have lent to the economy.
A shot in the arm (http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/editorial/20270.html)