Govt reviews policy on joining 20 leading economies

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 Governors' Forum assesses members' performance

FIVE years after it formally adopted the Nigerian Financial Systems Strategy (FSS2020), the Federal Government yesterday assembled experts in Abuja to appraise its implementation.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is the implementation agency, said the need to commit the execution framework to a stress test informed the review exercise.

It said the review was also designed for government to be sure that the Balanced Scorecard Concept (BSC) it adopted for delivering a sound and robust financial system to guarantee Nigeria's emergence as one of the world's leading 20 economies by 2020 is on course.

CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who spoke on the review of the blueprint in Abuja yesterday, declared that the policy had reshaped the country's financial sector, especially the restoration of sanity in the banking industry.

At the state level, the Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF) is using the Peer Review Mechanism to gauge the performance of its mebers.

The forum said the measure would serve as a guide towards a successful implementation of development programmes in the country and assured that the process would be religiously followed.

The governors explained this yesterday at the State Peer Review Mechanism (SPRM) workshop, organised in Awka, Anambra State by the forum in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom (UK), to kick-start the initiative in Nigeria.

NGF Chairman Forum and Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, said the process would wake up states that are backward in development.

In an address at the strategy execution review session organised for the financial sector stakeholders being facilitated by Dr. Robert Kaplan of the Palladium Group, Sanusi, who is also the chairman of the FSS2020 Steering Committee, " said the programme is a holistic one, which vision is to make Nigeria one of the safest and fastest growing economies among the emerging markets. We propose to create a financial system that is surplus to domestic requirements and also create a Nigerian International Financial Centre (NIFC)."

Sanusi spoke on "FSS2020 strategy implementation so far and the reason for the review: "

According to him, the CBN took advantage of Kaplan's visit to hold two strategy sessions between the CBN board and employees on the one hand, and those of Dr. Kaplan and the Palladium Group, on the other.

Having chosen the balanced scorecard as the framework for strategy execution and performance management, the CBN, he said, decided to have a special session with Kaplan, "to enable us interrogate the CBN planning process and overall framework."

"The balanced scorecard concept is not new to the CBN. We have positioned our strategy along the four perspectives. Along the line, we have trained some of our personnel on the concept and some have taken the BSC professional certification examinations and are now full-fledged Kaplan & Norton Balanced Scorecard Certified graduates."

He said yesterday's "Strategy Execution Master Class" was sponsored by the CBN on the platform of the FSS2020 Programme and for the benefit of the entire financial system."

"You will recall that in 2006, we collectively agreed to pursue a financial reform programme that would be holistic, internally consistent and in harmony across board. This was informed by the not-too pleasant disparate results recorded by the various sectors of the financial system in their individual efforts to reform.

"When the FSS2020 Programme was launched, its diagnostic phase saw about 150 experts from across the financial system coming together to craft a road map for financial sector reforms. At the end of the exercise, we agreed that we should set up a financial system that would make Nigeria Africa's financial hub.

"This may not be the appropriate forum to sing the successes of the FSS2020 initiative, but suffice it to say that it is arguably the most comprehensive financial reform programme going on in the world today. The various sectors of the economy have shown tremendous improvement, in spite of the adverse impact of the global financial crisis that has been on since late 2008.

"In the banking sector, the dramatic drop in the levels of non-performing loans and the structured growth of the banks in the areas of capitalisation, capital adequacy and liquidity ratio, are restoring confidence in our economy. The banks are on the road to recovery and I have no doubt that we have put in place the relevant measures to grow the banking sector along the lines of international best practices.

"We are deepening the yield curve in the financial markets and the level of transparency and efficiency in those markets is rising dramatically. Serious investors are coming back to the Nigerian market. We have also embarked on a comprehensive review of our legal framework so that we can create the ambient environment for economic growth and development. In payments, I must state that we are confident that Nigeria will have a modern payment system comparable to what obtains in other developed economies."

Sanusi appealed to the stakeholders to ensure that they deliver on the mandate of the citizens of the country and on the lofty ideals of the FSS2020 programme.

Amaechi, who was represented by his Delta State counterpart, Emmanuel Uduaghan, said the process would help the governors to learn from their peers, adding that the National Economic Council (NEC) had implored the 36 states to model it after the African Union (AU) Peer Review exercise, which they have endorsed.

The host governor, Peter Obi, said he is not surprised that Anambra State was selected as a pioneer state for the project, noting that through the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), the state had moved up in the development chart. He recalled that donor agencies were moving out of the state years ago which he said was as a result of crisis occasioned by politicians, but now the story is different.

The Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Prof. Chinyere Okunna, explained that through ANIDS, Obi had put in place a process for planning, budgeting and implementation of projects in the state.

Uduaghan said the SPRM involves sharing experience among states through the reinforcement of commendable innovative practices.

He said besides Anambra and Edo states selected as the pioneer states, Ekiti, Jigawa, Rivers and Niger states have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding stipulating the conditions for conduct of the assessment by the NGF.



The Guardian