The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has insisted that all Nigerian banks are healthy.
The Director, Banking Supervision Department of the CBN, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, made the declaration on Friday while reacting to the reports that some banks are in distress.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, Mrs Martins asked Nigerians to disregard any information that some banks were in distress, urging them to go about their normal transactions and avoid panic withdrawals.
She said that Nigeria “had a worse situation in 2009 where it wasn’t just a liquidity problem. It was liquidity and capital,” and that no depositor lost a penny.
“Right now all we have is one bank with a liquidity problem and CBN is playing its statutory role. There is absolutely no reason for depositors to panic,” Martins added.
Liquidity Support
The CBN official explained what she called ‘liquidity support’, which the apex bank is lending to Skye Bank.
“The liquidity support that we gave them is to wind down the long term assets. They become more liquid, they are able to pay us back, able to meet their short term obligation (and) then we get out of the way,” she said.
Mrs Martins explained that Skye Bank was okay in terms of capital, stressing that its asset quality was not too bad.
However, she said that the bank had been failing the liquidity prudential ratio for a while.
The CBN had in a statement signed by its acting Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, discredited reports that some banks in the country may have gone or may be going into distress.
It also disapproved claims that Skye Bank was suffering, assuring the general public of the safety of their deposits in any Nigerian bank.