03/08/2011 (Vanguard) - The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has said  80 per cent of deposits in intervened banks have been resolved, even as it has granted Oceanic Bank a three-month extension of its inter-bank transactions guarantee from the initial September 30 deadline.

Briefing newsmen at the end of yesterday’s Bankers’ Committee meeting in Abuja, CBN’s Director of Banking Supervision, Mr. Joe Adewole, said the decision to extend the apex bank’s guarantee for Oceanic Bank was announced to the bankers in recognition of the Transaction Inplementation Agreement signed between Oceanic and a core investor, ETI on July 30, 2011.

He said: “Oceanic Bank signed a TIA with ETI on July 30, as its core investor.  And like the CBN did when the three banks signed the TIAs earlier on, the governor announced to the Bankers’ Committee, that the same extension of CBN guarantee for the inter-bank transactions of Oceanic Bank will be extended from the deadline of September 30 to December 31, 2011.”

Adewole said with the guarantee extension, industry players and customers could continue to do business with the bank with greater confidence.

Oceanic Bank was the forth of the intervened banks to signed TIAs with Union Bank, Intercontinental Bank and Finbank have signed similar deals earlier in July.

According to the director, the affected banks have “crossed the major threshold in their recapitalisation efforts”.

The CBN chief said that with the signing of the TIAs by the four banks, about 80 per cent of the deposits of the intervened banks have been resolved and expressed confidence that the recapitalization issued of all intervened banks would be effectively resolved by the end of next month.

His words, “with the Oceanic Bank signing of TIA, a substantial portion of the deposit of the intervened banks have gradually been resolved.  Indeed, about 80 per cent of such deposits have now been resolved and we are sure that by the deadline of September 30 for all intervened banks to recapitalize that issued would have been completely resolved and all the banks would have been adequately capitalized”.

In her own remarks, the Managing Director, MD, of Union Bank, Mrs Funke Osibodu, disclosed that the banks have trained 160 specialists in preparation for a greater role in infrastructure funding which she admitted was a new field for the industry.

Specifically, she said that electricity power sector and transportation would engage the attention of Nigerian banks in line with the national economic agenda and that the industry was doing every thing necessary to position itself for adequate service delivery in those sectors.

Similarly, Mr. John Aboh, MD of Oceanic Bank said that the banks were working to adequately educate their staff on the details of non-interest banking with a view to gaining necessary expertise on its operations in order to provide the window for those interested in the specialized banking in the spirit of financial inclusion.

He added that the energy being expended on the on-going debate could be better channeled into a study of that type of banking which he said exists in many parts of the Western world.

A greater attention towards rejuvenating the agricultural sector, particularly the production of soya beans, cotton, maize, tomato and maize was also said to have been agreed to, by the bankers.

The initial six produce in  focus would be latter increased to ten, adding, cocoa, livestock, aquaculture and palm oil.

Agriculture enjoys a mere 1 per cent of Nigerian banks’ lending, currently.  This is to be increased to about 7 – 10 per cent in the next five years, it was agreed.