Nigerian banks cheated customers by N6bn in 2012- Sanusi

The Central Bank of Nigeria said on Thursday that over N6 billion was
recovered for customers that were cheated through various transactions
undertaken with Nigerian banks in 2012.
The Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi , said this at the annual
Isaac Moghalu Foundation, IMOF Lecture and Symposium in Abuja. He also
said that the recovery was in furtherance of CBN's policy aimed at
protecting customers' interests in the financial services sector.
"The Director of Consumer Protection has recovered over N6 billion in
the last one year for customers that were cheated by banks," Mr.
Sanusi said.
Mr. Sanusi said the achievement was recorded through various
gender-related reforms carried out at the Central Bank as part of the
Board's commitment to ensure equal opportunities for all employees.
According to him, in furtherance of the balanced gender agenda of the
Board, trainings had also been organised for 650 staffers of the bank.
He criticised women at the top of their careers and those in top
political offices who use their positions for self-serving agenda,
saying most of them fail to initiate or support programmes that would
help in alleviating poverty, particularly among the vulnerable
grassroots women and girls.
He said the much desired women empowerment dream may not be realised
if they failed to support the less-privileged others, pointing out
that the current regime of credit policies in the financial services
sector is gender biased as a deliberate policy to remove all barriers
that inhibit women from accessing credit in order to enhance their
capacity to contribute more to national economic development.
"If one has a credit process that says that one needs tangible
collateral or landed property in a society where women do not
generally hold titles to land, one has already cut women off credit
because men own the land and houses. And for women to even approach a
bank for a loan is almost impossible," he said.
To address the problem, Mr. Sanusi said the CBN was already asking the
banks to look at those credit policies that could better promote the
financial inclusion of millions of women who are very productive but
still excluded by the existing policies.
On the issues of performance and reward, Mr. Sanusi said it was wrong
to promote men simply because they put in more hours at work, whereas
women have to go home early to attend to their families, thereby
missing out often on promotion in the office.
Canvassing the agenda of more women in leadership positions in the
banking sector further, Mr. Sanusi insisted that more women should
aspire to get to the top of the boards so that they can support more
grassroots women who do not have access to education, die during
childbirth, and have no access to primary healthcare and jobs.