As part of industry response to the issue of cyber security and ensure critical information infrastructure is protected, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with the Bankers Committee have concluded arrangement to establish a National Fusion Centre.
The was disclosed by the Managing Director, Citibank Nigeria Ltd, Mrs Iretiogo Samuel-Ogbo while addressing journalists at the end of the 364th Bankers Committee meeting held on Thursday, October 20, 2022.
The meeting dwelt on various issues bothering on ethics, payment system & infrastructure, professionalism, competency and sustainability took the centre stage.
The managing director explained that collective approach was needed to mitigate the threat posed by fraudters, adding the move against cyber attack is in line with the international best practice.
She said, “Cyber security is a challenging subject, one of the unintended consequences of automation and digitisation. Our vision as a banking industry is to come out with counter measure in order to mitigate that risk. So, to prevent cyber-attack, to deter it and even to predict and plan pre-emptive threat, a cyber-security centre has been envisioned and is being birthed and assembled to be able to do this.
“And we believe that by having this collective approach as an industry, it will really help to mitigate the vulnerability of risk of cyber-attack and it will provide that information sharing across the industry. God forbid we have a cyber-attack, having that kind of coordinated effort means that we are able to minimise damage and enhance recovery time.
So it’s very pleasing to see that we are taken this kind of action and this action is very much in line with the international best practice.”
On RT200 introduced in February by the CBN, the Citibank boss said the purpose was to generate a $200bn from non-oil proceeds, saying the policy is yielding positive result.
She said, “The whole idea behind the initiative was diversified sources of FX away from the dominant oil and to increase the contribution of non-oil export to increase availability and to support export oriented companies to expand operations and capabilities.
“We were very pleased to observe that this initiative is beginning to bear fruit and show successes, and at the end of Q3, total amount repartriated was $1.28bn. Out of that, the total amount sold into I&E window was $870mn which ended up in terms of rebate that was paid by the central bank. $42bn in rebate had been paid in rebate in the Q3.”
Speaking also, the Managing Director, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, NIBSS, Premier Oiwoh gave an overview and value proposition of national domestic card scheme, which, according to him, had been approved.
The card scheme, the brainwork of the apex regulatory bank is deployed to improve the payment landscape across the ecosystem in Nigeria.
NIBSS chief said, “Part of the proposition of the bank is that this National Domestic Card Scheme would be created to help drive acceptance and efficiency, reduce operating cost of the card operation in the country and also provision of unique and reliable services because other fixtures and other products will be there in this card.”
“Uniquely, this card would be configured to address the unique ecosystem issues that we have to help improve payment across the nation. We also expect the card to provide affordable pricing. On this card, the charges will certainly be lower, it is expected to be charged for in naira as against foreign currency.”
He disclosed that the card will support micro payment and credit, e-government, identity management, transportation, health sector and agriculture method of payment.
“We expect this to reduce the dependency on cash across the landscape and help promote the cashless initiative driven by the central bank.
TheoV noperational effectiveness of this card is expected to be robust and is expected to drive innovation, s
then full end-to-end visibility to improve fraud management and better dispute resolution process around the card operating system. According to him, local competence for the card and payment scheme will also be deepened within the ecosystem and “improve the sovereignty and security of our data and operations which will be locally based.
It will also help improve and drive financial inclusion across the federation. This card would be a platform and a lot of products would be layered across ranging from debit card, virtual card, credit card, non-interest card, which would specifically address the needs of the Moslem segment of the country, then identity card. Any form of card scheme can be layered on this platform.”
On her part, the Managing Director, Lotus Bank Plc, Mrs. Kafilat Araoye said the industry was in support of the policy of Monetary Policy Committee of CBN to raise Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Monetary Policy Rate (MPR).
She said, “The meeting held today discussed the last outcome of the monetary policy committee meeting. And it’s clear that we have to do some strong measures to ensure that we rein in inflation. The two major decisions are the increase in the monetary policy rate by 150 basis point and increase in the cash reserve ratio as well from 27.5 to 32.5.
“The basis behind this which we all support as banks, will help mop up excess money in the system. When we mop excess money, we reduce demand, we reduce pressure on foreign exchange as well. So, it is a very good move in ensuring that all the efforts being made in the past to curb.
In addition, she said, “Part of what this would also do is to ensure that the excess fund with us as banks in current account is kept safely for formals to the point where it will only be released when it is truly needed. And so for us as banks, we are in support and we believe that everybody within the country should understand the move behind the decision that had been taken.”
