The President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr Bayo Olugbemi, said on Thursday that the banking industry had done well in the past 61 years, even though there was still more to be done.

Olugbemi said in Lagos that in recent times the industry led by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN gave a lot of succour and support to the real sector, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“The banking industry is trying its best, especially in terms of contributing to the growth of the economy.

“We may say we have not done as much as other countries are doing but then, a lot of support has been rendered to the industries, the real sector, service industry, manufacturing and the rest.

“If you look at what happens in recent times, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown, banks led by the CBN gave a lot of succor and support to the real sector.

“For example, interest rates on some loans where reduced to as low as five per cent, especially credit to the health sector, pharmaceutical and other sectors of the economy.

“Also within the period, the industry gave lots of support to the agriculture sector, SMEs and other sectors.

“But as I said, there’s still a lot on ground to be covered but we are not doing badly,” Olugbemi said.

He said besides support given to households, MSMEs and other businesses, the banks provided CSR, welfare, food, medical equipment and even built COVID-19 centres in some states.

“In time past, we have also contributed immensely to the security architecture of Nigeria by providing vehicles for the police.

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“So we are trying our best but our best may not be seen to have been enough, but we shall continue to support the growth and development of this nation.

Olugbemi, however, advocated that long term mortgages be given to banks to enable them to develop the housing sector.

“This is an area that the banking industry is not doing well,“ he said.

“I will have to be frank; in terms of development in the housing sector, the banking industry has been given mortgages, but the kind of mortgages that we give here are not the type that are needed to grow that sector.

“For example, you give a mortgage and you say mortgage of eight years, five years; in other countries mortgage is a minimum of 20 years.

“So we need long term mortgages; and you don’t blame the bank per se, it’s the structure of their deposit, you have to match it, you can’t use short term fund to fund long term credit.

“Honestly, if we want to improve in that sector, we need to get long term capital to be able to fund that sector well because mortgage of five years, 10 years will not take us anywhere.

“So the banking industry needs to look at that and see how they can attract investment that they will use to fund long term housing sector funding or credit,” he said.

He noted that the private sector could not fund infrastructure development because infrastructure such as roads take like 25years to be able to recoup , adding that no bank would be willing to lend for 25 years due to the structure of their fund.

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The CIBN president expressed the hope that the launch of the eNaira by CBN on Oct. 1 and the planned setup of Infraco Plc by the Federal Government would, to an extent, help the development of infrastructure in the country.