The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced new guidelines on its recapitalisation policy for Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country.
The new guidelines were contained in a statement signed by CBN Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Hakama Sidi Ali, in Abuja on Thursday.
- READ guidelines below
She said the apex bank had directed commercial banks with international authorisation to increase their capital base to N500bn and national banks to N200bn.
Commercial banks with regional authorisation are expected to achieve a N50bn capital base while non-interest banks with national and regional authorisations will need to increase their capital to N20bn and N10bn, respectively.
All banks havr 24 months to meet the minimum capital requirements, beginning from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2026.
The banks are also required to submit an implementation plan for meeting the new capital requirement not later than April 30, 2024.
The CBN Governor had on Tuesday at the 294th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting urged DMBs to expedite actions to increase their capital base to strengthen the financial system against potential risk.
In its meeting, the committee noted that to guard against risk, commercial banks in the country should accelerate their recapitalisation efforts.
The current capital base is stratified based on the type of banking licence – banks with regional, national, and international licences are currently expected to maintain the minimum capital bases.
The proposed increase in the capital base comes nearly two decades after the CBN’s 2004 banking reform, which increased the then-prevailing capital base from N2bn to N25bn, leading to mergers and acquisitions.
