 It is such a great pleasure to participate at another Bankers' Conference, the 14th. And I must say that I really like Bankers' Conferences. They're always so encouraging. Bankers, as you know, always look good, no matter how things are looking. Sharp business suits, ladies and gentlemen, Bankers, they just look recession-proof. So I'm glad to be here. But I must say that your confidence and your optimism is a patriotic act. It's not just a reflection of the fact that, yes, there is plenty of opportunity and plenty to do, but it's also a patriotic act. And talking of patriotism, you know, one of the most patriotic Nigerians I know, is my dear younger brother, the CBN Governor, Godwin Hemeshiele. I'm sure you noticed that I said emphasized younger brother. He just turned 60 a few days ago. So really he's a very young man. And I'll tell you a story why I think he's very patriotic. One day while on an official trip to the UK, I and a couple of other people who are my team stopped over at a store, a Thai store, who wanted to buy a few green ties for Independence Day dinner. They walked into the place and asked for green ties because they were none. The gentleman who was there, attending to us, said that the CBN Governor had come and bought all the green ties. That's one of the ones he's wearing today. It is such a good sign. So I'm glad to be here, but I must say, you know, and of course everyone of us will admit that past few years have seen some of the most significant economic shocks in our history. We've had the misfortune of experiencing two recessions in about four and a half years, likely due to external shocks, notably from the oil sector and now from the health sector with COVID-19. So while we must commend ourselves for quickly exiting both recessions and even seeing a 5.01 GDP growth bounce back in the last quarter, we've experienced a deepening of poverty and unemployment. So if there is any issue that must be front and center of policy and action today, it must be lifting millions out of poverty, creating jobs and opportunities for our young and restless population. Every macroeconomic and government policy must be subjected to the question, what will its impact be on poverty and jobs? So this is why the theme of this conference is particularly important, economic recovery, inclusion, and transformation, the role of banking and finance. And I think we should emphasize that, the role of banking and finance. So in the next few minutes, hopefully challenge our banking and financial sector to step up to the plate and play its part. And this sector has a large part to play. First, because we know that countries with well-developed financial systems experience faster economic growth and as such are better able to engineer accelerated exit out of poverty for many. Second, according to a McKinsey report, despite COVID, Africa's banking sector is fast growing and nearly twice as profitable as the global average. To be fair, over the years, the banking and finance industry in Nigeria has supported national economic development in so many ways. It has provided good paying jobs to a large number of Nigerians and contributed to growth in economic activities through path-breaking innovations. And as you've heard from the president and also from CBN government, several innovative interventions that have greatly helped in ensuring that we're able to sustain some of the progress as we made through the years and able to make even some appreciable progress despite the challenges of COVID-19 and other external shocks. But clearly, we're far away from where we ought to be. So what needs to be done? I believe that it is time for the banking sector to take on some of the transformative big-ticket items that would fundamentally transform our economy. Such matters, for example, as consumer finance, but housing finance in particular. The link between housing finance and economic development is already well established. And there is an interesting AFDB survey which I think is currently on their website that provides great material on this point and I've used it quite extensively in this particular contribution. The housing sector, they say, may support poverty reduction and inclusive growth in two general ways. First, housing construction contributes to economic output, creates employment and generates a demand for materials and related services. Second, improved housing raises the standard of living of occupants. That study that I referred to, the AFDB study, says, for example, that the benefits of housing for individuals accrue in large part through better health and sanitation. And of course, this improves the overall human capacity of our citizens and of those who are able to own these houses. Housing also generates large multiply effects in terms of employment and output. Employment, of course, is created for both skilled and poorer unskilled workers. The evidence also suggests that there is a symbiotic relationship between housing finance and the financial sector development. So housing finance helps to develop the financial sector itself and those contributes to economic growth. So these were the justifications that we also advanced for the mass housing initiative in our economic sustainability plan. And if you read the plan, you will find that these justifications are the same ones that were deployed, especially with respect to a mass housing program. But the challenge for full implementation of our mass housing program remains that the finance sector appears shy or simply have not found the right housing finance model that will work. Because we don't have a functional mortgage market. We are way behind in home ownership for that reason. And our economy is effectively left out or perhaps the most reliable source of generating capital for individuals. And I must admit that the task cannot be for banks alone. There are issues around appropriate pricing of mortgages. Today, given Treasury bill rates, banks would rather take those safe investments. Mortgages would then have to be at a premium significantly higher than Treasury bill rates. Banks have also argued that sterilizing their assets as non-interest bearing cash reserves plus income rates at 0.5 impairs not just liquidity, but also return on assets. But in fairness to the CBN, and I will mention this shortly, it allowed the use of Bank-CRL to support and to risk development projects. And I will talk about one of those shortly. Then there are also land titling issues, problems associated with perfecting property titles, which are problems that only state governments can solve. We've been working on these issues with several state governments. In particular, some of the best work we've done has been with Lagos and Cano under ease of doing business initiatives. But there is still so much ground to be covered. Another issue which I think must engage your attention are some of the game-changing interventions that the financial sector can make in the light of the extensive implications of climate change mitigation. The world is committed to zero emissions by 2030. One of the chief considerations, especially for developing countries, is how to pay for the massive transition to renewable energy. How do we pay for moving from where we are, especially fossil fuel-based power sources to renewable energy? This is a significant challenge, but it's also an enormous opportunity. So the federal government established an integrated solar strategy for the electrification of 5 million households serving about 25 million Nigerians in our economic sustainability plan. The CBN set aside $150 billion for the program, made available, as I had said earlier, through the Bank-CRL via a program that is administered by the Bank. The program has three core objectives, expanding energy access to 25 million individuals as 5 million connections, increasing local content in the off-grid solar value chain, and creating about 250,000 jobs. The program is targeted at three key players, including assemblers. These are manufacturers and distributors and the vertically integrated off-grid companies. So what the program wants to do is to be able to offer cheap finance to these categories of developers, either the manufacturers or the off-grid suppliers, and quite a few others who will be able to play in this market given the very large size of the program. There are two proposed mechanisms for the disbursement of the local funding to component manufacturers and off-grid companies under the program. This includes for the component manufacturers direct lending through selected commercial banks or local development finance institutions, such as the BOI and the Development Bank of Nigeria, etc. Now, the second is for off-grid companies direct lending from local development finance institutions to solar home system distributors and mini-grid developers through a CBN credit facility which is collateralised by pledge revenues and repaid through cash sweeps. So the federal government also provided subsidies of up to 20% to 30% for each successful installation through the Rural Electrification Agency program, NEP, to further de-risk these transactions. The NEP program has been going on for the past two years with record collections of 90% and above in some cases for the NEP solar developers, showing a relatively low-risk track record. But despite these efforts from the federal government, there has been very little uptake by the commercial banks to catalyse installations or manufacturing of the solar power project. The Paoneer Transaction is a partnership between Stirling Bank and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company that saw the NDPHC provide further risk guarantees to get the project through, but at least that is on. The challenge of under electrification of the rural and the poor and its associated impact on our economic well-being and security cannot be overstated. The Climate Change Challenge is a massive one in more ways than one. And I would certainly like to encourage the Bankers' Committee to refocus on supporting the solar power program to ensure that in the next few months we can catalyse access to the 150 billion and create 5 million connections that can multiply to eliminating electricity access deficit and creating jobs. Aside from these two major projects, we are on the cusp of adopting our new medium-term development plan. The banking and finance sector is expected to help mobilize the additional resources that the public sector requires for plan execution. Moreover, given its traditional role of financial intermediation, the banking sector has a critical role to play in providing the capital required for the private sector to drive economic growth. I'll only add that the sector should also introduce more long-term and patient financial arrangements and instruments which are essential for building infrastructural facilities and factories needed for this great structural transformation. Government is already playing its part in this regard through the establishment of development banking institutions such as the Bank of Industry, the Development Bank of Nigeria, and special purpose vehicles, as you've heard, like the Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria, InfraCo, and the investing in digital and creative enterprises program which we're implementing with the AFDB. Going forward, the banking and finance sector must take advantage of the new opportunities that are opening up and also adapt to domestic and international developments. The rapid changes in the technology sector mean that financial technology companies and payment service companies are now an inescapable part of the financial landscape. To start with, banks must leverage, I think, the Nigerian international interbank settlement system and BVNs to their advantage as both are sources of data and of secure transactions. One particular area in which these advantages can be used is the provision of credit to business and individuals. The availability of the data on clients across the banking sector enabled the Central Bank of Nigeria to issue the global standing instruction policy which makes it possible for banks to recover their loans from recalcitrant borrowers by attaching their funds in other banks. This policy should significantly reduce the risk of non-performing loans and enable banks to begin to extend personal and business loans on a much wider basis. Financial inclusion is, of course, critical to the objectives of recovery of inclusion and transformation. Access to financial services, especially in this COVID era, is particularly important for the poor and more vulnerable sections of society so that they can keep their micro-businesses alive and handle risks and uncertainty. And again, we must commend the CBN, the Bankers' Committee, and the CIDN for the efforts made towards developing the shared network expansion facility, Sanif. And this facility, of course, as you know, is one that has worked very well, especially in incorporating mobile payment technology firms into the whole corpus of our banking and financial system. And it has helped a great deal in ensuring that you don't need to get a banking license before you're able to participate one way or the other. I'm also acknowledged the banking sector for the very critical role that you played in the delivery of the federal government social investment programs by making it easier to make payments to beneficiaries of the scheme across the country in several locations that otherwise would have been unreachable. However, there is a lot more that needs to be done. 39% of current banking agents are in the rural areas. Only 39%. One obvious way to rapidly scale up financial inclusion is clearly to leverage mobile technology. And the more room that we can give to these payment systems, the better for us all. So making a headway in this context entails innovation and cross-sectoral collaboration between banking and telecommunication sectors, especially with regard to providing products that are tailored to different customer segments. I've had a few tension-filled meetings between the banking sector and the telecommunications companies. I suspect that the bankers think that the telcos are about to take their lunch. So they are generally very... they're very skeptical about the way that the telcos come into the financial sector. But inclusion demands are coming up with products that are diverse and heterogeneous. And the truth is that this banking and financial space must be open to others now. In any event, technology is going to make it inevitable. That is the case. So as part and parcel of this effort, banks should work with governments and other stakeholders to promote financial literacy so that people have knowledge, knowledge that they need to make the right financial decisions. I think banks must also step up to the plate in the context of the African continent or free trade area. And one of the reasons why I think that this is important and I think the involvement of banks, especially at the negotiation stage, as we negotiate now rules of origin and other segments of the negotiation that will impact the way that we enforce and the way that we carry out are that we're able to take advantage of the free trade area agreements. I think that banks must, at this stage, come into that process of negotiation and be with negotiators because quite a few of the advantages, especially with respect to services, is going to really belong to the banking sector. So we think that the increasing trade of course means increasing opportunity. So the AFZTA means more trade and it means obviously more opportunities and, of course, especially for cross-border payments. We already have a fairly visible presence of Nigerian banks across Africa with the likes of AXS, UBAs, Zenith Bank, I believe GTB in several countries and there is no reason why we cannot expand on this using the opportunity provided by the free trade agreements. Similarly, it will be important to develop inter-regional and continental payment systems to facilitate the expected increase in goods and services under these free trade agreements. And one expects that the proposed Pan-African Payments and Settlement Platform being established by Africa Exim Bank will garner the necessary support from the finance industry so that we can at least have a system that works for cross-border payments across Africa. As I close, permit me a little reflection. I think that banking has been one of the most stable industries through the centuries. Not much seems to change from one phase to the other. But the next decade, and it may be soon, promises to bring about the most fundamental changes that we have seen yet. I think that this is evidence from the rise of fintech companies, the role of digital currency, whether issued by reserve banks or crypto, blockchain technology, the increasing role of venture capitalists, especially in providing equity for startups. The preference of these companies for equity rather than debt may be worth thinking about. Clearly, today, venture capitalists everywhere seem to be taking a larger proportion of the initiatives, especially around the startups. Obviously, these are relatively risky, but at the same time, the rewards are huge. However, no matter how things pan out, I think we have very interesting days ahead. So let me again thank the Council of the CIBN and the Organizing Committee of the 14th Annual Banking and Finance Conference for the very kind invitation extended to me and also for the excellent arrangements that have been made to convene this meeting successfully. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you.