RIMAN seeks establishment of national risk centre, framework

• Says infrastructure remains challenge to lending

Risk Managers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) said there is need to establish a national risk framework and centre, that will serve as reference point for data and credit management to make informed decisions on economic issues.

Besides, such institution would have identified risks ahead of time, with verifiable data, especially for our mono-product economy and the lingering oil price crash together with its implications,which the country is currently going through.

The President of RIMAN, Jude Monye, who noted that risk management is a process rather than destination, said that the practice involves identifying, measuring, managing and controlling operational risks, not only in the establishments, but also in the national economy.

He noted that risk management offers the opportunity to unravel inherent risks in activities ahead of venturing into them and seeking ways to control the consequences or avoid them.
The national framework, he said, under a chief risk officer, would have identified the nation’s dependence on oil as a “concentration risk” and sounded the alarm that it cannot be depended on.

The centre, as risk data bank, would have pointed out the need to get people of strong character to manage leakages in the system, just as reports are now saying that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is under-remitting revenues accrued to government.
The centre would have also acted as a check on what kind of persons are working in the public institution to ensure that they are reliable and mostly, would have helped to reduce losses associated with budget implementation over the years in the country arising from lack of project assessment and risk data.

Meanwhile, Monye, who is also the Executive Director of Heritage Bank Limited, said RIMAN believes that retail business is now a major instrument for the banking sector to sustain its operations in the face of dwindling fortunes for the industry.
He noted that there are about 19 development institutions that are ready to give their money to banks for development projects, especially in real sector lending, but the environmental factors are still challenging every noble idea in that direction.

“Banks are lending to real sector, although it may not be to the extent expected, as most of its liquidities are deposits, rather than long term funds.