 My brother, Dr. Bode Ayurindi, who, as we all know, is a doctor of law and a former lecturer at the University of Israel. He's also, as we've heard, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, the founder and Pro-Chancellor of Achievers University Award and Chairman of the House Technical Committee on Recession. I think the Honorable Bode Ayurindi deserves our commendation, not just for those numerous titles, but for this seminar work. His activism on our economy is not new. The most recent was the convening of the highly successful Legislative Economic Summit held here in Abuja in November, an event that brought together policymakers, members of parliament at both federal and state levels and stakeholders all over the country, and this perhaps is one of the most important summits on the Nigerian economy that we've held yet. Dr. Ayurindi and I share a lot in common, and it's not just the similarity in our sartorial tastes, also as academics who have left academia, but also recognize, but recognize that those of us in government must engage in detailed study and introspection, that scholarship is crucial to leadership. I think Dr. Ayurindi has by this work and his numerous other interventions shown that the legal academic is no longer just a scholar, he is a transdisciplinary actor, a man of affairs who must be able to make sense of the complexities of economics, of political economy, of law, and of issues of social justice in order to make governance relevant to the very large number of people who may not understand those things. Your Excellency, the right Honorable Speaker. There is no question at all that we're perhaps in one of those turning point moments in world history. We are faced with incredible developments in technology and either to unimaginable disruptions in our assumptions about every aspect of human endeavor, especially economic and business models and trends, where in an age where much that had been taken for granted is being challenged, trade agreements are being challenged, economic unions are being challenged, immigration, even the very idea of truth is being challenged. At the same time, as this is happening, traditional institutions are also facing increasing challenges, politics, religion, media, and of course banking. Banking has been in the spotlight for a while, actually since the global economic meltdown a decade ago, which saw the uncovering of the clear feet of the banking giants once deemed too big to fall or too big to fail. Some of us will remember the Occupy Wall Street protests, followed in quick succession by other protests focusing on highlighting income inequality with banks and the banking industry as a whole featuring as key targets of the frustration embodied by those protests. The underlying angst of the dissatisfied majority has been economic inequality and obviously the lightning rod is the banking industry. In Nigeria we've had and we continue to have our own questions as well, focused to a large extent on the contributions the banks have made and are making to what is known as the real economy. And these are not just questions for academic or subject matter experts. Nigerians look around and are puzzled by a scenario in which to cite one example, they give their hard earned funds to banks at single digit interest rates but cannot get anything less than double digits when they seek the same funds for their businesses or mortgages for their homes. All of these occurring against a backdrop of what seems to be regular declarations of hefty profits by banks. I think it was Mark Twain who said that a banker is a man who gives you an umbrella when the sun is shining and snatches it away from you when it starts to rain. I think I might add that he snatches it away with interest when it begins to rain. It's perhaps accurate to say that for most Nigerians banks have not really significantly impacted their lives or livelihoods. First the under-banked population is said to be in the order of about 40% which means that a significant number do not even have access to banking facilities let alone banking products of any kind. The majority of those who have bank accounts for a variety of reasons are not able to access personal loans, mortgage or business loans. This probably explains why financial inclusion has gained increasing currency and resonance in the past few years. It's not just access to banks for safekeeping of funds especially for the poor. Those in the rural areas and far-flung parts of the country. It must be much more than that but also it is about access by all, by all to financial products designed for all income earners, for low income earners. It's not just about financial inclusion for the poor but everyone especially those who earn little and small businesses should have access to funds coming from the banks. We experienced that problem first hand when we started the conditional cash transfer scheme one of our social investment programs. This is a scheme where 5000 Naira is given to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society and we had a scheme for one million, the first design of it was for one million of the poorest and most vulnerable. We had relied on the word of the enthusiastic banks that came to us immediately the announcement of the scheme was made and they said they would be able to make payments to all beneficiaries living anywhere in the country. When the scheme started we discovered that this was simply not true. In any event making those small payments in distant places where the banks had no agents simply didn't make economic sense for them and the truth is that the way banking business has been designed there is little room for financial inclusion. There is little room for those who cannot afford to pay the kinds of charges that banks have to make. Let me quickly add that this is not necessarily the fault of the banks alone. We run an economic system that essentially favours the strong and excludes the weak. It has been our task as a government to turn that around. Just by social investment programme which provides in the budget 500 billion and of course a more aggressive financial inclusion strategy. Our approach is to open up the space for mobile payments which are proved in other jurisdictions to be an effective way of democratising banking. The central bank in a publication as far back as 2012 on financial inclusion noted and I quote that with over 80 million Nigerians known to carry mobile phones compared with the between 25 to 40 million banked Nigerians, patronage of this medium of payment has the potential to grow at geometric progression with a potential transactional value of 6.5 billion daily at 1.17 trillion in six months. That was almost six years ago. And as concluded at the unbanked African summit, that was the theme of a summit which was held the year before that. Mobile banking through cell phones remains a feasible tool to provide basic financial services to millions of the unbanked in urban and rural communities in Africa. Now this is an important point because obviously there are those who feel that the banking system and banking activities should be left purely in the hands of the banks. And there's an ongoing argument as to whether or not we should not take the advantage of mobile payments especially through the telcos. What of community importance is the point underscored by the right honorable speaker. How to give affordable loans especially to medium and small scale businesses. How to ensure that small businesses and medium scale businesses have loans that not only are comfortable enough to pay back but also are able to effect the desires of the business owner for the kinds of profit and also the kinds of dividends that you may wish to pay shareholders. It's an important consideration in any economy that the banking system must be able to provide loans. And I think that some of the ongoing conversations that we're having not just with banks but across the entire economy will eventually lead to the point where we're able to deliver on the promise of being able to facilitate small and medium businesses. On board Dr. Baudiai already is banking reform in Nigeria. The law, the prospects and the challenges is an important book. It invites us to examine these questions and many of those questions that have been raised in the past. And I think it's very important to have these conversations with the ultimate goal of defining how the banking industry can seamlessly and supportively fit into our goals and ambitions as a country, especially a country in need of jobs of growth and prosperity. Every time we affirm, and by that I mean the current administration, our belief that we fully recognize that government and the private sector ought to work in close partnership jointly mobilizing and deploying the capital required to deliver growth and prosperity. We're in essence doing what we have acknowledged, namely what we have acknowledged, namely the important role of banks and the banking industry as engines of credit for manufacturers, for SMEs, and for investors who will create the jobs and the growth that we urgently need. Most of the important reforms that the author suggests are in the area of regulation. Regulation, of course, is a touchy ideological issue anywhere in the world. He argues that the CBN should be more responsible to the National Assembly. He also felt that there was too much, that the CBN operated too much like an octopus, governing not just regulation of banks, but also the whole area of fiscal policy. I'm not going to contend with any of the issues as he has raised them. Today is not a day for too much argument. But I must say that regulation is, of course, at the heart of our whole financial and hence our economic system. One thing that we've learned from the last decade is that more often than not, it is these ordinary citizens who pay for the misadventures of the financial services sector and the failures of government regulation. But only do they lose their homes and monies. Sometimes even their life savings, they also shoulder the cost of the bailouts of the banks. This is why it is my view that independent governance of the CBN and closer and more regular forensic scrutiny of banks is fundamental. And I wish to repeat that. That it is important that the CBN is independently governed and that we have more frequent, more regular scrutiny of our banks. And the scrutiny should be forensic. It should be a scrutiny that's independent, even independent sometimes, of the regulatory authorities. It's not more rules and regulations. It is greater enforcement. It is holding our bankers to account. It's insisting that they keep their books honestly and transparently and to sanction effectively. And to sanction effectively those who so often step out of line. Well, let me again congratulate my brother and friend, Honorable Bode Ioridi.