The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said it resolved 3,890 complaints lodged by customers against banks and other financial institutions in the first six months of this year.
The apex bank made this disclosure in its Half-Year Economic Report for 2018.
It reported that 1,439 of the complaints were against banks while the remaining 2,451 complaints were lodged against other financial institutions operating in the country.
When analysed on comparative period of last year, the report indicated that the complaints in the first half of this year were more than the total 2,411 complaints lodged against both banks and other financial intuitions.
Last year, 1,141 of the complaints were lodged against banks while 1,270 received and resolved by the apex bank were for other financial institutions..
The report showed further that compliance examination of 21 banks revealed 100 percent compliance in respect of outward telegraph/SWIFT, savings account and current accounts maintenance charges, and validation of refunds.
However, the report indicated that lower levels of compliance were recorded on the implementation of directives issued after the last examination, adherence to interest rate on executed offer letters, application of SMS charges and treatment of outstanding complaints.
The bank reported further that in addition to the examinations, the apex bank sustained interventions in the inter-bank and bureaux de change (BDC) segments of the foreign exchange market, including increased frequency of sales to BDCs to ensure liquidity and stability in the market and abolished commission charges on invisible foreign exchange transactions.
Also, during the period under review, the report disclosed that CBN signed a three-year bilateral currency swap agreement with the Peoples’ Bank of China (PBoC), worth 15 billion yuan (N720 billion), equivalent to $2.5 billion to boost liquidity and facilitate trade and investment.
In the first half of this year, the report noted that the Naira average exchange rate to the US dollar, at the inter-bank and BDC segments, appreciated by 0.03 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, to N305.79/$ and N362.25/$, relative to the levels in the second half of 2017.
Other highlights of the report are that broad money supply (M2) grew by 2.8 per cent to N24,814.00 billion at end-June 2018, annualised to 5.6 per cent, compared with the benchmark of 10.8 per cent for fiscal 2018.
The report attributed the growth in M2 mainly to the significant rise in net foreign assets, which more than offset the contraction in other assets (net) and domestic credit (net) of the banking system during the period under review. It also indicated that however, that the nation’s foreign reserves which stood at N6,360.47 billion, fell by 1.9 per cent, compared with the 6.3 per cent decline at end-June 2017.
This is even as the apex bank reported that Narrow money supply (M1) dropped by 4.2 percent to N10,701.10 billion at end-June 2018, on account of the 14.7 per cent and 2.3 per cent decline in currency outside banks and demand deposits, respectively.
The report showed further that currency-in- circulation fell by 12.0 per cent to N1,900.67 billion at the end of the first half of 2018.
