The Central Bank of Nigeria has released a comprehensive list of licensed Deposit Money Banks operating within the country.

The list, which was made public on the CBN’s official website on Tuesday, provides insights into the banking landscape in Nigeria.

Banks with international authorisation include Access Bank Limited, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Limited, First Bank Nigeria Limited, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, United Bank of Africa Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc.

Commercial banks with national authorisation include Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Heritage Bank Plc, Globus Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Limited, Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Sterling Bank Limited, Titan Trust Bank Limited, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Premium Trust Bank Limited and Optimus Bank Limited.

Commercial banks with regional licenses are Providus Bank Limited, Parallex Bank Limited, Suntrust Bank Nigeria Limited, and Signature Bank Limited.

Players in the non-interest banking sector with national authorisation include Jaiz Bank Plc, Taj Bank Limited, Lotus Bank Limited, and Alternative Bank Limited.

In the merchant banking category, the apex banks listed, are Coronation Merchant Bank Limited, FBN Merchant Bank Limited, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited, Nova Merchant Bank Limited, and Rand Merchant Bank Limited.

The financial holding companies listed were Access Holdings Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, FCMB Group Plc, FSDH Holding Company Limited, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, and Sterling Financial Holdings Limited.

The Mauritius Commercial Bank Representative Office (Nigeria) Limited was listed as the sole representative office.

The Federal Government of Nigeria received an additional N3.8 trillion in what appears to be fresh Ways and Means Borrowing in the last six months of 2023.

This is according to provisional data published in the latest Statistics bulletin for the fourth quarter of 2023 recently released by the central bank.

The CBN’s provision data show that the total figure rose from N4.4 trillion at the end of June 2023 meaning that the cumulative Ways and Means balances due by the government now stand at N8.2 trillion as of December 2023.

The Ways and Means provision serve as a mechanism enabling the government to secure short-term or emergency financing from the CBN to address cash flow gaps.

Total Ways and Means balances as of May 2023 when the Tinubu administration took over was N26.95 trillion. However, the balances were securitised as included as part of the federal government’s domestic debt profile.

A cursory analysis of the data shows the balance at the end of June 2023 was N4.36 trillion indicating that the prior month balances may have been moved to the Debt Management Office.

However, from July 2023, the balances increase every month, first to N4.5 trillion in July, then N5.1 trillion in August, crossing the N5.1 trillion mark for the first time.  By September, the total was N6.4 trillion, representing the single largest additional borrowing for a month with about N1.3 trillion. It then climbed to N7.2 trillion in October before rising marginally to N7.6 trillion in November.

At the end of the year, in December, the total hit N8.21 trillion, suggesting that Ways and Means increased by 88 percent in six months.

The Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has warned economic saboteurs speculating and hoarding the Naira to desist from such act.

ABCON President, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, in a statement on Friday, also said the association would establish a unified retail-end forex market to tackle volatility and boost regulatory compliance among Bureau de Change (BDC) operators.

He said that the strategic plan meant to unify operators from different cadres of the market would include the inauguration of state chapters for market coordination.

This, he noted, was to ensure integration and administration of a united market structure in the BDC sub-sector.

He added that ABCON would upgrade technology in its quest to help in the fight against the sabotage of CBN’s reforms.

“The new blueprint for a united retail end forex market structure would ensure the deployment of a centralised, democratised and liberalised onlinereal-timee trading platform.

“Finally, we also condemn in its entirety the seemingly reappearance of illegal economic behaviours in forex conversion and P2P trading that pose another recent surprises in Naira volatility.

“I therefore want to warn that while surprises are the new normal, resilience is also the new skills,” he said.

The ABCON boss said that he was confident that the apex bank and relevant security agencies were adopting all measures to deal with any saboteurs and retain successes recorded on Naira appreciation.

“It is, therefore, in our own interest to desist from hoarding and speculation as it is a burble and will burst in no distance time,” he added.

Gwadabe said that ABCON would extend its automation policies and platforms to all BDC operators across Nigeria markets and upgrade its Business Process Platform(formerly called SAAZ Master).

Gwadabe said that the association would sustain its engagement with regulatory agencies, security operatives and other government apparatus to entrench a secured and thriving forex market that is supportive to regulation and government.

“Part of our vision for a united retail-end forex market include activating geo mapping and automated BDCs physical office verification exercise using the Remote Gravity Physical verification apps.

“This will enable forex buyers to easily locate where BDCs offices are for effective and seamless transactions,” he said.

He reiterated the benefits of a realistic and vibrant retail-end forex market as supporting Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) goal of achieving true price discovery for the Naira, balancing of international obligations and national objectives.

He listed other benefits to include ensuring ease of regulation, security agencies monitoring and supervision as well as entrenching market visibility for BDC players.

According to Gwadabe, the vision for a united retail-end forex market will help in the provision of market intelligence reports, enhance the local and global image of the BDCs and other stakeholders, market operators and boost employment generation.

The successful execution of this plan, Gwadabe said, would help in seamlessly capturing revenues for government through digitised retail-end market.

He explained that it would also create a well structured, transparent and competitive platform to checkmate the menace of unlicensed platforms like Binance, Aboki FX, ByBit, among others.

He said that ABCON is a self-regulatory body, an umbrella body for all the Central Bank of Nigeria -CBN-licensed BDCs.

“It is a national body, acknowledged by Federal Government and believes that money laundering through the BDCs or any other financial Institution is unacceptable and those found wanting should be punished based on the law,” he said.

He added that the association had over the years “lived up to its name by protecting the interests of genuine forex dealers and supporting a stronger Naira.”

He said that ABCON had since its inauguration, redefined Nigeria’s BDC sector with technology, capacity building for operators and support for exchange rate stability.

Gwadabe said the overall primary goal of ABCON was to ensure forex availability to the critical retail end of the forex market and bridge the gap between the official and the parallel market exchange rates.

“With the world going digital, BDC operators under the ABCON leadership are committed to staying ahead of the competition by deploying time-tested technology to deliver effective services to foreign exchange end-users,” he said.