CBN charged on incentives for banks returning to North East

Following the damages done by Boko haram, the National Assembly and the NDIC on Thursday at the ongoing workshop for business editors and finance correspondence, organised by the NDIC in Kano, charged the CBN to provide incentives for financial institutions to go back to the North East to resume business.
“My feeling is that chief executives (CEOs) of banks in Lagos have forgotten the potentials that exist in the North East. It is our responsibility to make them appreciate the business potentials in the North East”, Umaru Ibrahim, managing director/CEO, NDIC said at the workshop in Kano.
He urged the National Assembly to push CBN to provide the needed incentives to rebuilding the North East.
Umaru said the bankers committee which meet annually to discuss on developmental issues should dwell on revival of infrastructure in the North East.
Corroborating with Ibrahim, Rafui Adebayo Ibrahim, chairman, senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions said the CBN can give incentives for Microfinance banks to open branches and come back to the North East by giving them some incentives.
In his presentation on ‘Rebuilding Financial infrastructure in the North East”, Olaitan, M. Director development finance, CBN said the North East is key to the Nigerian economy, as it is a bastion of commerce and trade with prominent local enterprises and well established trade routes such as the trans-Sahara route.
Represented by Sani Mohammed, deputy director, development finance department , he said the rationale for rebuilding financial infrastructure in the region is compelling as the region has a very high potential for agricultural development and food security.