The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that it is not putting banks under pressure to meet the new capital requirement imposed on them.
Cardoso said this on Tuesday at the 295th Monetary Policy Meeting, monitored by NewsNGR.
The apex bank boss said it is the responsibility of the Central Bank to ensure that the banking system is strong and resilient.
“I am very happy to say and we said it in the MPC communique that the banking system is indeed sound and safe and fit for purpose as far as we can see, it is sound and safe so there is nothing for anybody to have any anxieties about,” Cardoso said.
In March, the CBN announced new capital requirements for banks in the new recapitalisation exercise which became effective April 1, 2024 and would end March 31, 2026.
New capital for commercial banks with international licenses was raised to N500bn, national license N200bn and regional license N50bn.
Merchants bank’s new capital requirement is N50bn while non-interest bank’s capital was raised to N20bn and N10bn for national and regional licenses respectively.
Cardoso said on the exercise, “We have gotten much of the feedback from the banks with respect to what their plans are. We gave them a long gestation period really to do this and we are hoping that capitalisation programme will be wrapped up within two years. So, we are not putting any of the banks under excessive pressure or anything like that, the whole idea is to work with them to ensure that we can strengthen the banking system that we already have.
“Once we have finished that review of the submissions that have been made, we will communicate that directly to the banks.”
The CBN governor said at the MPC that the bank aims to make the banking system stronger and reliable.
According to him, the exercise would aid the bank to align with the administration’s goal of achieving a $1tn economy.
Cardoso said, “In terms of what we have done with respect to recapitalisation, of course, we are looking forward and saying that we need the banking industry to be a lot stronger and more robust, particularly considering the $1tn economy that the federal government is anchored itself towards.
“We need a much stronger banking system and we need a banking system that will have sufficient enough shock absorbers in the case of any within the domestic and international ecosystem… We get ourselves ready so that in case there are further ones, we are in a position to withstand them.”