The Federal Government has signaled a definitive end to the era of banks profiting from currency volatility, following a meeting on Friday between President Bola Tinubu and the Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu.
The meeting marks a strategic pivot in the administration’s economic war room. While previous discussions focused on saving the Naira, the new directive from the Presidency is the forced redirection of bank liquidity away from foreign exchange speculation and toward the real sector specifically small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Emerging from the Villa, Elumelu delivered a blunt assessment that serves as a warning to the financial sector.
“The easy money from dollar scarcity has dried up. The days of seven out of ten phone calls being about where to find dollars are over,” Elumelu declared, signaling that the Central Bank’s recent hand-holding of the currency is now permanent enough for banks to stop hoarding and start lending.
This suggests that the President is leveraging Elumelu’s influence as a bridge builder to ensure the banking industry doesn’t just stabilize the currency, but actively fuels the 2026 industrialization push.
Sources indicate that the President has demanded a direct-to-retail lending model that bypasses the usual bottlenecks, effectively telling the nation’s top bankers that their performance will now be measured by how many small businesses they fund, rather than their FX arbitrage gains.
The move is seen as a tactical victory for the Tinubu administration, which is desperate to turn macroeconomic stability into stomach infrastructure for a restive population.
By securing the public buy-in of a major private-sector player like Elumelu, the President is attempting to isolate rogue financial actors who may still be betting against the Naira’s recovery.