Nigeria’s Bankers Committee at a meeting in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday, has agreed to come up with a strategy that will make the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) more virile and thriving through the reduction of lending rates.

The Bankers’ committee posits that a reduction in bank lending rates will make way for a virile and thriving informal sector which is a potent tool to reduce Nigeria’s current social tension.

Addressing journalists on the resolutions made after the regular meeting of the committee, Group Managing Director, Diamond Bank plc, Alex Oti, said the committee deliberated extensively on how to reduce interest rate on loans for small scale and micro businesses as the sector have the capability to stimulate economic growth.

“We discussed how to reduce interest rate to this sector to make lending cheaper for the industry and enable it generate employment and improve productivity,” Oti said.

“We have decided that banks will need to now begin to give about 10 per cent to small and medium scale enterprises.”

He added that the modalities on how to achieve lower rate for the sector would be made public within the next few weeks, adding that the issue would be adequately ironed out at its ongoing bankers’ committee retreat.

In regard to the series of complaints by bank customers on excessive charges allegedly made by banks in the country, the Bankers Committee said it will investigate the alleged excessive charges imposed on customers by Deposit Money Banks.

Report has it that although the bankers’ committee made a consensus to cut off ATM charges; some banks have devised means to introduce fresh and arbitrary charges in place of the removed ATM charges.

According to a local newspaper, The Punch, commercial lenders like First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Skye Bank Plc and Keystone Bank Limited recently introduced monthly maintenance fee on Automated Teller Machine cards, a move customers said was an indirect replacement of the scrapped N100 charge on third-party ATM withdrawals.

Some banks were also said to be charging as high as N50 (32 cent) for SMS to alert their customers of transactions on their accounts, far above the N4 that all GSM networks were charging for text messages. Other arbitrary charges include N500 ($3.17) monthly maintenance fee for every current account, depending on the bank; and N5 inter-state commission on every N1,000 transferred into or withdrawn from savings accounts in a state different from where the accounts are opened or domiciled, Punch reported.

However, Diamond Bank boss in his address said, “It is unfortunate that you are still being charged on ATMs. We have taken a decision on it and if any bank charges you, it is wrong and we are going to take it up at the Bankers’ Committee.”

“A decision was taken to remove the ATM charges, and as far as I know, banks have removed that. But it is news to me when you say banks are now introducing new charges. We will confirm that.”

“Even without a formal report, we will investigate it and every bank was supposed to actually comply and if there is any bank that has not complied, I don’t think it is acceptable to the Bankers’ Committee. So, we are going to look into it.”

In the same vein, GMD of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Emeka Emuwa stated that “We (the Bankers’ committee) all agreed that there would be no ATM charge and I think that has been taken away.” “It may well be that what you are talking about are other charges that banks are applying, and I think what is important for us to do is to check whether any bank is actually applying a different charge in place of that because that is not what is intended to happen. It was not supposed to be taken away with one hand and replaced with the other hand.”

On the scarcity of lower denominations in the country’s monetary circulation system as complained by some businessmen; CBN Director, Banking Supervision, Tokunbo Martins, said the apex bank is at work on releasing lower currency as well as improving their quality.

She explained that the scarcity was caused by the recent setback encountered in the suspended currency restructuring programme of the apex bank.