CIBN: Macroeconomic Gains Must Translate To Lower Living Costs, More Jobs — Alabi

Nigeria’s improving macroeconomic indicators will amount to little if they fail to translate into lower living costs, more jobs, higher incomes and better living standards, President and Chairman of Council of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr Dele Alabi, has said. Alabi spoke at the opening of the CIBN’s 19th Annual Banking and Finance Conference in Abuja, stressing that stronger economic fundamentals must be felt at the household and small-business level, not just in macro figures.

Alabi said the next phase of Nigeria’s reforms must focus on transmitting the gains of macroeconomic stability to businesses and households, and linked the conference theme to the CIBN’s IMPACT Vision, which he unveiled on assuming office in May. He said the institute’s advocacy for scalable SME hubs was a response to challenges facing MSMEs, including high operating costs, poor infrastructure, limited market access and slow digital adoption.

Also speaking, the World Bank’s Lead Private Sector Development Specialist for Nigeria, Bertine Kamphuis, represented by Dr Mathew Verghis, said credit to Nigeria’s private sector remains inadequate and urged banks to channel more financing toward job-creating sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and MSMEs, noting that three to four million young Nigerians enter the labour market yearly.

President Bola Tinubu, represented by Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele, charged banks to rethink their approach to risk and play a more active role in financing productive sectors rather than focusing mainly on profits. He said Nigeria’s economy has returned to a path of stability with rising investor confidence, but cautioned that stability should not be mistaken for prosperity, describing the current reform phase as about converting stability into investment, production, jobs and improved living standards. On the ongoing bank recapitalisation exercise, Tinubu said it must translate into real capital formation and productive financing rather than merely producing bigger bank balance sheets.