Nigerian banking is a contradiction. It is either that they do not know what banking is all about or they are lazy and have fallen into the trap of corrupt practices that define Nigerian businesses. The main source of income for banks is primarily from the interest they earn on their assets ( loans). But the contraction is that Nigerian banks do not give loans. Another source ( non interest income) is investments and consulting activities. But Nigerian banks do not do investment, they only know how to trade- cash and carry. I am not sure they know what consultancy is all about. I have not read about any major M&As that have been executed by them.

They also gain from this ridiculous arbitrage trading (inadvertently?) given to them by the CBN, when they sell forex to banks at the official rate and they in turn sell to the public at the parallel market rate , thereby making over 300% profit for doing nothing. They also earn a huge interest on deposits with the CBN and on government treasury bills and bonds- over 14%. That is it. If a bank can earn this huge income from a risk free instruments, ,why do banking? But the robbery comes from their countless charges. It is so painful when you receive over six debit alerts at the end of the month for a thousand and one services you not solicit for. Their defence has been the cost of doing business by which they mean cost of fuelling their generators. This makes Nigeria the most expensive place in the world to bank. In the UK, banks now pay interest on current accounts. You can pick up any amount of loan in five minutes over the phone.It is about time Nigerian banks woke up to their responsibilities- do real banking. if they do not know how, then, they should learn.

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