Senate President Bukola Saraki has said
the Senate is concerned about the high interest rates on loans, stating
that lawmakers will this week discuss the issue with the Central Bank of
Nigeria and the Deposit Money Banks.
According to him, in an economy where
workers were being retrenched and people were losing investments, it was
immoral for certain sectors to be making astronomical profits.
In an interview with newsmen in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on
Sunday, the Senate President said, “They (banks) will tell you that they
are doing business but in doing business, there must be social
responsibility.
We must be able to sit down and look at ourselves
eyeball to eyeball, and we intend to do that; and I can promise
Nigerians that we can find a solution. Hopefully with the stability in
the forex market, we will now begin to address the high interest rate.
“There is no business that can make
money if it is trying to borrow at 28 or 29 per cent. It cannot work and
if we cannot get the banks to lend to the real sector and they carry on
their money to government instruments, there cannot be growth. So, we
must tackle that. I can assure you that I will lead that challenge. We
must sit down and discuss it.”
He added, “They are in business to
make money but we must look at what money is reasonable in this kind of
environment. You may have to reduce that profitability to allow your
country to grow. It is that balancing that we need, but in doing that,
there must be some incentives. We may have to tell them, ‘Listen, we may
have to limit how much you put in government security’.
“What do you do with that extra amount
of money? It must go to the real sector. It must go to the business that
produce made-in-Nigeria products. They may say that it is too risky to
do that. In doing that, we must give them some assistance. This is the
kind of negotiation we must make.”
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