CBN reveals list of banks with the lowest and the highest lending rates

The Central Bank of Nigeria  (CBN) has released the list of Nigerian banks with the lowest and the highest lending rates.

In the release, CBN unveiled the applicable rates for each of the deposit money banks (DMBs) as at September 30, showing the lowest and the highest rates from the 24 lenders.

This unveiling showed that United Bank for Africa (UBA), Skye Bank, Access Bank, FCMB, Fidelity Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Sterling Bank, and Wema Bank, were all cited to have loan facilities with a single interest rate for agriculture.

Skye Bank, Keystone Bank, Unity Bank and Wema Bank had the highest lending rates, around 30 percent to 31 percent on the maximum.

Citi Bank, Coronation Merchant Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, and Rand Merchant Bank, paraded the lowest interest rates, between 20 percent and 22 percent on the maximum.

CBN has also promised to published the lending rates of every Wednesday in some selected national Newspapers.

The rates will also be available on the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria.




- NAN

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2 soldiers arrested in connection with the kidnap of Emefiele's wife.

Two soldiers, Lance Corporals Musa Maidabra and Edwin George, serving at 122D30 Regiment in Maiduguri, Borno State, have been arrested for transporting the ransom that was paid for the release of the wife of the Central Bank Governor, Margaret Emefiele.

Margaret and three others were abducted along Benin-Agbor Road about two weeks ago and were released 24 hours later after the payment of undisclosed amount to their abductors.

The two soldiers said they received N6.5m each as their share of the ransom estimated to be around N80m.

Maidabra and George, who were paraded alongside seven others on Monday in Abuja for alleged involvement in the kidnapping, said they were given the money for assisting the gang to transport the ransom to a hideout in Benin, the Edo State capital.

Other suspects included a dismissed soldier, Ernest Uduefe, Mohammed Abubakar, Mohammed Musa, Mohammed Sule, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Aliyu Musa and Mohammed Yusuf.

Maidabra said, “We were not involved in the kidnapping; we only assisted them to transport the money to a location. We carried the money and ran away with it in a vehicle; it was part of my friend’s share that I collected. We didn’t know the money was from a kidnap operation.”

George corroborated his colleague, saying they provided security cover for transporting the ransom to a hideout in Benin.

“I was not involved in the kidnap; the money they gave me was over N6m. I asked about the source of the money, but they didn’t tell me,” he said.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Donald Awunah, said the police recovered N14,725,000, two Honda Accord cars, an Audi car, one AK 47 magazine and two cartridges from the gang.

He stated that a Jeep, valued at N1.5m and N4m cash were recovered from Maidabra, while a Honda Accord, estimated at N1.1m, was recovered from George.

Donald explained that detectives recovered N7.7m from Musa out of his N10m share, adding that he sustained bullet wounds after a gun duel with the police while trying to escape from the forest where they had kept their victim.

“Mohammed Sule confessed to have received N10m in cash as part of his share of the ransom paid and claimed a soldier and a gang leader escaped with the rest of the loot. Another suspect, Ibrahim Abdullahi, admitted to have received N10m in cash.

“The police will continue to limit the capacity of kidnappers and other criminals to disrupt the quality of life of Nigerians by the deployment of adequate manpower and resources in crime reduction, detection and prosecution of offenders,” he said.  

He added that the ransome was something used as a bait or bargaining chip to save the lives of victims of crime.

“It is absolutely important to mention that the police do not and will not encourage payment of ransom,” Awunah added

Source :Punch

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CBN Governor gets Vote of Confidence from FG.

The Presidency appears to have passed a vote of confidence on the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, following the moves by some members of the House of Representatives to remove him from office.


A Presidency source said, at the weekend, that the Federal Government has confidence in Emefiele to see the country, alongside top government officials in the economic sector, out of recession.

A motion sponsored by Hon.Ali Isa (Balanga/Billiri constituency, Gombe State), titled, “Call for investigation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s forex policies”, last week, had called for the sack of Emefiele and his team over the fate of the Naira.

The call was supported by Hon. Mojeed Alabi, representing Ede North/Ede South/Egbedero/Ejigbo (Osun State) and Hon. Wale Raji, representing Epe (Lagos), among other lawmakers in the House.

A Presidency official, reacting to the moves, told Newsmen that President Muhammadu Buhari “is far from convinced that Emefiele is responsible for the currency crisis or the economic recession”.

“The CBN Governor briefs the President regularly on the situation, on the inflow of dollars every month and how much is being demanded by importers. The President has seen the progression and regression over the years and how the scarcity of forex is causing the sharp drop in the value of the Naira. He believes it is very unreasonable to sack Emefiele and CBN management,” said the official, who declined being named because he was not mandated to officially speak on the issue.

He added: “When oil price was $120 per barrel and we had reserves of over $60 billion, the Naira was doing well. That was when we should have checked the import dependency to grow the local economy. We did not do that. The President is not convinced that now that crude oil price is less than $50 and production has dropped drastically because of militant activities, Emefiele should be blamed for the falling Naira”.

According to the source, the President believes Emefiele has done his best in the difficult circumstances that Nigeria has found itself.

It was learnt that the CBN has made many interventions since the crisis started to stabilise the finances of states and the Federal Government.

A source at the Ministry of Finance said the CBN, acting as lender of last resort, has provided loans of over N420 billion to several states to pay workers’ salaries in the last two years, outside their statutory allocations.

Each of the 36 states has also collected N10 billion for infrastructure development, while the N350 billion “stimulus spending” recently announced by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, was provided by the Central Bank.


Source : Vanguard

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Police arrests 6 suspects linked with the kidnap of CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele's wife .

The police in the Federal Capital Territory have arrested six suspected members of the gang that abducted the wife of the Central Bank Governor, Margaret Emefiele, last Thursday.



The suspects, who were arrested at their hideout in Edo State over the weekend, are being held at the state command headquarters, Benin.


It was made known that the suspects were apprehended by the operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Monitoring and Intelligence Team, led by CSP Abba Kyari.



This brings to seven the number of suspects arrested in connection with Mrs.Emefiele’s abduction, which occurred along the Benin-Agbor Road.

Punch had reported that Kyari and his team were on the trail of the gang members.

The team had relocated to Edo State after the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, directed them to go for the criminals and rescue their victims, which included a driver and three women.

The gang had demanded N100m ransom, but they were forced to release their victims following pressures from the police, army and Department of State Services.

It could not be confirmed if any ransom was paid, but the hostages were released early Saturday morning, while the security agencies arrested one suspect shortly afterwards.

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