LCCI Urges CBN To Reduce Charges On Bank Deposit

Forum 8 years ago

LCCI Urges CBN To Reduce Charges On Bank Deposit

Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to reduce charges on bank deposit.


The president of LCCI, Mr Remi Bello said this at the chamber 2015 first quarter press conference in Lagos recently.


Bello said that high interest rate regime is good for the attraction of portfolio investments, but it penalises the real economy and impedes the capacity to create jobs.


“We call on the CBN to reduce charges on bank deposits, especially the 0.5 per cent fee to NDIC, and another 0.5 per cent for AMCON. These additional costs are invariably passed on to the investors in form of high cost of fund,” he said

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According to him, the money-deposit banks deserve to earn interest from the 20 per cent Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) on private sector deposits because the deposits were mobilised at a cost. The same is true of the 75 per cent CRR on public sector deposits. We believe it is only fair for some interest to be paid on account of the withdrawal of these funds from the banking system.


Speaking on the concluded general election, he said the election has impacted positively on investor’s confidence, saying that the election was peaceful and substantially credible. “This significantly moderated the anxiety and uncertainty that preceded the presidential election. There is now a perception of sustainable peace in the country which is of course good for the investment environment,” Bello noted.


However, he pointed out that there is need to manage expectations on the president-elect, saying “macro-economic issues such as the exchange rate depreciation, declining foreign reserves are driven largely by exogenous factors which may be beyond the control of the administration. Similarly, structural issues in the economy such as infrastructure and the diversification of the economy will also take some time to fix. But generally, there is a feeling that this election marks the beginning of a new dawn which will put Nigeria on the part of sustainable growth and development.”