Tuesday, September 18, 2007

New Economy: Bring Back Our Old Bankers!

We've made many many mistakes in the past. We've done many faddish and rash things. We've copied ALL da wrong things and deferred too many right things. We've now come to da crunch: Where do we go from here?

Forwards, I scream! So, let's start with the economy. Nigeria has committed itself to a rigorous agenda: To become one of the world's Top 20 economies by the year 2020! Great. It will do so by, among other things, using the Financial Services Sector to drive the programme. Great. Or, is it? Yes, if the banks can rise up to the plate!

So, I have some thoughts...

Let's start with some enquiries: Some very basic questions on house-keeping, order and sanity. Mainly preparatory stuff most people can easily digest:
1) In Nigeria, is banking a profession, vocation or occupation?
2) Which laws and bodies ensure its utmost professionalism?
3) What are the official and unofficial levels of bad-debts and frauds?
4) What are the lessons of the consolidation exercise?
5) Have we done the SWOT Analysis of ALL the NEW banks, post-consolidation?
6) How many staff does each have, and how many are professional bankers?
7) What is the success level of their cards and e-banking forays?
8) What lessons from 1-7 above for branch banking?
9) Do they uphold the rudiments of banks' historical anchors: agric-finance, trade-finance, mortgage-finance, micro-finance and SME-development?
10) Where are we in women banking and youth enterprises - which were so promising before?
11) What are the annual numbers of qualified bankers from the CIBN "production line"!?
12) What are banks doing about capacity building, and getting their staff to become ACIBs?

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bankers Committee, The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) have all spoken out on the dearth of professionalism in the financial services sector, especially the in banks! Last week, the senate president reiterated this lament!! A visit to our banking hall will tell you just how poorly the levels have sunk!!!

Things are very very bad. Most of the staff have no idea what banking is. Many are "financial illiterates". You are told things by rote, not by reason or rationality! An independent survey is now inevitable - to shove da mirror in our face, as it were!

Global Warning...on Skilled Labour:
Anyone with enough attentiveness will hear the endless lament about shortages of good quality manpower in most developed economies, the rich world. People are living longer, and the baby boomers are staying healthier. In places like Japan and Russia as well as some European states, the populations are aging faster than they can replace/replenish the work force! The youths in many cases are abandoning their home towns and villages, sometimes countries, for good!

All these are informing and driving immigration policy around the world. Now, most developing nations are the hunting grounds of the rich countries for skilled labour! Professionals from doctors to nurses, from ICT experts to chemical engineers, from university dons to microfinance practitioners, are now joining masons and beauty therapists in da New Brain Drain!

Hallo hallo, even Eastern Europe (ask Poland!) is been drained by the West!!

Clever companies and governments are recalling old hands, delaying retirement or extending the mandatory age limits, even as many countries are now incentivising employers and citizens alike, to address the problem. France's cabinet is currently working on its own major shake up: expected to be bold and revolutionary!

But here in Africa, our people are complacent. Nigerian leaders were busy retrenching, sacking and re-sizing staff, from both public & private sectors, without adequate preparations or quality succession, in the last eight years! In a depressed economy, health and education plunge. So is it with Nigeria. Our system is churning out half-baked graduates and unskilled professionals. The youth service scheme has been virtually paralysed by lack of funds and scandalously diminished placement/posting opportunities: companies are folding up, governments are downsizing. What a double blow!

It be from this milieu, dear thinker, that we are just crawling - after the damning shame of da last elections - hoping to regroup, recoup and rebuild. Where then are the professionals that will staff and sustain the banking system? And thus help da financial services sector drive and power the economy to its 20-20-20 summit?? Big question.

Trusting Nigerians and the me-too mentality of our public officials, the new policy of using microcredits/microfinance to drive the anti-poverty agenda and power wealth creation through MSMEs, will witness a proliferation of schemes and sorrows pretty soon. Every government, every excellency, every NGO, every community will soon start its own bank or scheme! Very little thoughts will be given to sustainability and success, especially the issue of professionalism.

The Global Dimension
Crisis is in the air! The US subprime mortgage crisis is creating ripples around the world. This week, the UK will know if the Northern Rock, its No.5 mortgage bank, will survive the run on it!

One reason the world financial system is now quaking is because all sorts of fancy products and services, including predatory financial engineering, have crept into - if not taken over! - banking.
People are simply figure-crunching, bundling & unbundling sterile assets, securitising strange & questionable mortgages, and refinancing an opaque miasma of debts & equities, with amazing ease and at da speed of light! Real banking is about PEOPLE. These days it's about FIGURES!
Very strange, indeed.

Hedge Funds have happened upon us like a thief in the night, and we are all wondering what hit us! Even the G8 found it too hot an issue to touch, let alone tackle, at its last meeting!! When this
remorseless but exciting phenomenon runs its course or "curse", may it not cost us in blood and tears!!! We warn, we pray.

Which is why the sensible call for Nigerian banks to recruit from the international labour market must be heeded with caution, and handled with care. We must recruit, but we must produce the bulk of our manpower in the long-run.

Part of the Solution...is...Past Players & Old Bankers!
To achieve some measure of sanity and stability, the banking system must seek out and bring back old hands: These are qualified professional bankers, experienced former staff, and former lecturers in banking & finance.

Once they are in good health and of no criminal records, re-hire them and retrain them fast! It will be magical what this will do for the sector.

WARNING!!!
If the banks delay, may someone tell them that the microcredit hawks are both in the running and swooning! Trouble is, when those ones politically mushroom and vocationally wither, we will still be stuck with da real banks - warts and all!

Let's Budget for the Media...(Press as Fourth Estate)

Am I stirring something? Yes. But only to the myopic or misbelieving! The 21st century is about change, and is about to change EVERYTHING! Believe.

Democracy is believed to be about choice, human rights, votes and good governance. Fine. So, it is firmly anchored on the 3-Arms (parliament, executive, judiciary). And in most cases, stood on the 3-Levels (federal, region/province/state, local/county). Then, finally, comes the Press (holding government and our leaders accountable). So, we say: the FOUR Estates of the Realm.

Nothing new in that civics lesson, right? Fine.

In all nations, we budget for the first THREE and let the FOURTH fend for itself - unless, of course, it is publicly-owned. Well, most of the world's press - from newspapers to radio stations and television houses - were government organs before not too long ago. Many many still are. But things are changing fast.

Known facts, right? Fine.

In a way, therefore, we can argue that we actually budgeted for the Fourth! Fair. Hey, but are government-owned media free and able to HOLD government and leaders ACCOUNTABLE? Don't kid us, folks. Go in search...

So, here is the real beef:

The media have evolved in many ways, will transform in even more ways, and the INTERNET will make things more challenging, if exciting, in the years ahead. While being able to inform, educate and entertain, the media must still constitutionally HOLD us all ACCOUNTABLE in the end. So, as we privatise for efficiency and effectiveness, we must support DEMOCRACY and sustain GOOD GOVERNANCE. That portion of media costs must have our imprint - our collective imprint.

I propose that every nation, every democracy, provides for this TASK by GRANT-aiding their MEDIA Houses. It is a simple matter: let us do so in the same manner we happily funded them when they were owned by government, except that we now must work out the criteria for eligibility, accountability and responsibility. Then, write the laws to bind us all.

Very easy, right?

Well, we fund political parties through some formulae, don't we? We finance civil society and multilateral agencies somehow, don't we? So, let's work out the very best, innovative, ambitious and constitutional way of funding the MEDIA - the very FOURTH Estate of our Realm!

A national trust, an independent 5-yearly bond, treasury cheques, tax credits, or...

For Africa, this be a goldmine for democracy!