‘Shortage of Funds, Major Challenge For FSS 2020’

The Coordinator of the Financial System Strategy 2020, Mr Mohammed Suleiman, on Tuesday said that limited funding for the programme, meant to make Nigeria a financial hub by 2020, was affecting its implementation.

He also listed inadequate skills in the financial market, low-cooperation among regulators, low level of financial literacy, unwillingness of private companies to go public and inadequate foreign direct investment as other challenges facing the plan.

Suleiman said these when he led a delegation from the FSS 2020 secretariat to a meeting with the Managing Director, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim.

He said the vision of the FSS 2020 was to make the Nigerian financial sector the fastest growing financial system among the emerging economies while the mission is to drive rapid and sustainable economic growth primarily in Nigeria and Africa.

He said while the strategy was conceived to benefit all the stakeholders in the financial sector, only the Central Bank of Nigeria had been forthcoming in providing the needed funding for the implementation of the programme.

He, however, regretted that the drop in the budget of the CBN by about 50 per cent had also affected the allocation of funds from the apex bank to the FSS secretariat.

Suleiman said with a budget of about N198bn for the implementation of the strategy, there was a need for all stakeholders in the financial system to contribute so that the objectives of the strategy could be achieved by 2020.

He called on the NDIC MD to assist in the implementation of the programme through the provisions of funds, adding that some members of staff of the corporation should also be posted to the secretariat to serve as a link between the NDIC and the secretariat.

He added that as part of efforts aimed at fast-tracking the implemenation of the strategy, the FSS office had reviewed three bills that would soon be sent to the Federal Executive Council.

The bills are the warehouse receipt bill, securitisation bill and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development bill.

Responding, Umaru pledged that the corporation would provide financial support towards implementation the strategy.