The theme of the award is “The role of Nigeria banks in realising Financial System Strategy (FSS) 2020.”

Professor Chukwuma Soludo, GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Soludo, architect of the banking revolution in Nigeria, will give an insight into the apex bank’s expectation of money deposit banks in realising the dream of Nigeria becoming the financial hub of Africa. FSS 2020 is Soludo’s second dream for Nigeria. His first was the banking consolidation.

When on July 6, 2004, Prof. Soludo announced a 13-point reform agenda for the banking industry in Nigeria at an expanded meeting of the Bankers Committee, bankers realised they were in for a tough time.

Of the 13-point agenda announced by the governor, only one was top in the minds of bankers. That was the new capital base N25 billion: have it by December 31, 2005 or cease to be a bank in Nigeria.

What Soludo did not disclose then was that he was scheming to launch Nigerian banks into the global financial market.

Nigerian banks then were satisfied with local transactions on foreign exchange where they reaped economic rent in the form of commissions. Most banks, at that time, saw the reforms as an impossible task and campaigned against it. Some saw some sense in it and immediately set to work. Three years after, the 24 surviving banks are shaping up to the best of competition.

The post consolidation results of banks show that the banking sector is still the most vibrant in the economy today. The banks are not satisfied with their current shareholders fund status and nearly all have returned to the capital market to raise more funds.

Giving his report on bank consolidation in Nigeria to stakeholders in Abuja, Prof. Soludo said the assets base of banks grew by approximately 277 per cent between 2003 and 2007.

Nigerian banks, according to him, now have branch expansion outside Nigeria, with 16 branches in Africa of which nine are new and five outside of Africa. The move by Nigerian banks to venture off-shore is as a result of the confidence they now enjoy on the international stage.

In the last one year, close to 10 Nigerian banks have ranked among the 1,000 top global banks.
The banking sector, today, is the fastest growing in Africa and with monetary authorities vision to make Nigeria the financial hub of Africa, and with its Financial Strategy 2020 in the works, the banks will continue to play leading roles in the economy. It is the dominant sector in the Stock Exchange and the dominant driver of the progress at the Nigerian capital market. The banking sub-sector accounts for 17 of the top 20 companies by turnover volume.

Soludo's biodata

Prof. Soludo, before his appointment as CBN Governor, was a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund, the University of Cambridge, the Brookings Institute, the University of Warwick and the University of Oxford and a visiting Professor at Swarthmore College (USA).

He has also worked as a consultant for a number of international organisations, including The World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the United Nations Development Programme.

Soludo is a core professional in the business of macroeconomics. He obtained his three degrees and then professorship at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He graduated with a First Class honours degree in 1984, an M.Sc. Economics in 1987, and a Ph.D. in 1989, winning prizes for the best student at all three levels.

He has been trained and involved in research, teaching and auditing in such disciplines as the multi-country macro econometric modelling, techniques of computable general equilibrium modelling, survey methodology and panel data econometrics, among others.

Soludo studied and taught these courses in many universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick. He has co-authored, co-edited and authored about 10 books on this subject-matter.

In 1998, Soludo was appointed to the position of Professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria; the following year, he became a visiting professor at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, US.

He joined the Federal Government in 2003. Prior to his May 2004 appointment as Governor of the Central Bank, he held the positions of Chief Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission.

In January 2008, in a speech to the Nigerian Economic Society, he predicted consolidation in the private banking industry, saying: “By the end of 2008, there’ll be fewer banks than there are today.

The restructuring of the banking industry has been attracting funds from local and foreign investors, which have increased banks’ ability to lend to customers.”

He hopes to see Nigeria become Africa’s financial hub, and considers microfinance important to the federal government’s economic policies.