CBN Urges Risk Managers to Support Economic Growth

Nume Ekeghe

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele has advised risk managers in the country to ensure that their activities in their respective institutions support government’s efforts towards achieving sustainable growth.

Also, wednesday, the Charted Institute of Bankers in Nigeria (CIBN) in collaboration the Risk Managers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN) inducted the first set of Certified Risk Mangers (CRM).

Emefiele gave the advice at the CIBN/RIMAN CRM induction ceremony held in Lagos.

Represented by the Director Risk Management CBN who also doubles as the Chairman Board of Trustees RIMAN, Ms. Falakemi Fatogbe, Emefiele applauded the inductees, saying the initiative was a step in the right direction in ensuring best practice in risk management.

He said: “As many of you would have noticed, the report of the National Bureau of Statistics the economy actually grew at 0.83 per cent last year. As Nigerians, we are happy with that result, but there are so many issues which as risk managers we have to contend with.

“If you have an economy that has grown at 0.82 percent and you have population growth of 2.6 percent, it shows you that we have much more to do.

Furthermore, he added: “For you as risk managers it means that our dependent on oil must be on an account to diversify away from oil.

“As risk managers, we need to actively seek other opportunities that we can mitigate the risk in and allow banks to lend too.

“We have achieved economic growth, but it not at the level that we need it to be and we need the growth that we achieve to be inclusive growth and sustainable growth.

“There would come a time when to be a chief risk officer in a bank you would need to have a CRM certification,” he added.

On his part, President of RIMAN, Mr. Jude Monye, said the exam was the first of its kind inNigeria and the second in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said: “There is something that excites me as a person. Certified risk managers certificate cannot be equated to any existing certificate. Some of us have financial risk managers certified (FRM) because it has no local content. CRM has everything FRM has and at the same time has the local content for Nigeria.”