Author: Seth Apati

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780230317598

This is the first comprehensive book on the politics and economics of financial sector consolidation in an emerging market in West Africa. It draws on the author's twenty years experience working with multinationals in this oil-rich zone, to address key issues and examine banking reform in one of the world's fastest-growing economies. With over $400 billion looted from the porous banking sector of Africa's oil-rich giant, Nigeria, banking sector reform is a key priority for the Central Bank and the newly-elected civilian regime, to attract foreign investors. However, several vested institutional and political interests make the reforms a herculean and near impossible task. After a hastily-designed economic policy and a banking industry consolidation which reduced the number of banks from 89 to 25 in 2 years, the regulators discovered that the quest for size reduction had created more problems for the banks. Was the consolidation successful? Did it impact positivelyon Nigeria's economic reform programme? And how did the US, the IMF and the World Bank contribute to the outcome? This book presents an almost minute-by-minute chronicle of the politics and intrigues, from a key boardroom participant who was actively involved in the restructuring of the Nigerian banking industry. It examines the corruption, regulatory challenge, and financial sector reforms in the world's largest black economy.Giving avivid account of how the banking sector in Nigeria prospered at the expense of the overall economy, the book traces the origins of the Nigerian banking reform, the dynamics of its banking sector, and future outlook of this emerging market - a country that aims to be one of the 20th largest economies in the world by 2020.