^with out being sentimental I don't have any personal score to settle with him but I can tell you that inflation reduced on paper and our exchange rate reduce simply because of this action "the rise in foreign reserve from $ 11.44 billion in June 2004 to $60.89billion in August 2008" a quote from you, and that is the impact of increased foreign reserves, I will also try to be as objective as possible facts and from experience(personal), rather then from doctored government figures,(they don't even have the current price of a bottle of vegetable oil, or a mudu of red beans as at today- the nigerian bureau of statistics) are my bases of argument, what are the indices for measuring inflation directly -purchasing power, how did they come about their figures of a reduction from double digit 11%to a single digit 6.5% over the period, without the real indices of development, by restricting spending in some key areas, which is why, they made look like the economy was better, monies where returned to the finance, that was fully utilized after 30th of Dec., by ministries and departments, and this was used to shove up our foreign reserves, temporary jobs were created coja, chogm, name them, its a lie! But, truth on paper, no real jobs, no manufacturing firms as they were leaving nigeria in droves, all these are the data we should personally collate, if you have worked in a bank before, you would ask yourself a question, is it the COT and interest charged on loans, serch fees for opening new accounts minimum balances, that are used to pay salaries of about 12-15 core staffers ie branch manager earns about N750k ABM N450k marketing staff N90-N114k etc, running costs, diesel power, L.G premises taxes, fueling cars used to run around, the office administrative overhead, they are all unsustainable, pls., if I may say, I collected a loan in 2008 and the interest was way above 24% from a commercial bank specifically Diamond, so that to me doesn't hold sway, about a drop in interest rates, reasons why bank can't abide with that official figure are numerous, they will tell you that government have said! but these funds were not given to them by government, so if you want a loan, we charge you what's fair to us, thirdly, how many of these branches were opened in economically viable places and were they were, they were busy acquiring assets not doing banking, to add to their balance sheet, just like they say the economy would crash if they didn't increase fuel price, lazy economics, it would never crash, some banks would have gone international to become affiliates of other selling part ownership and divesting truly, just like stanbic ibtc, and some may have failed not as a result of the recession but as a result of insolvency and bad investment planning, CONSOLIDATION WAS NOT, the PROBLEM it was the manner it was done, no true guideline, that ensured that funds obtained were for the development of the banks operations, rather they went acquiring assets, that they believed would rise based on speculation, but had no direct impact on financing real development, UNIFIED BANKING was the PROBLEM, the ability for the banks to do various businesses under one umbrella, becoming an international player isn't the issue the real issue is how and what is the impact on the economy?did you really become an international player, by borrowing money or by creating money? By developing potential investors within the economy, they may have become part of the top 500 but how many could finance the construction of an oil refinery? Direct impact financing only their balance sheets, imagine a bank with only 72 branches and funds of 1.6trillion -basically fewer staff reduced overhead and more funds to invest over long periods in projects, that's what makes a bank, consolidation was good but unified banking when the same bank would divest into various things using the limited funds available that to me is a no no!

A politician who blames his predicessor for his failure. is a weak one. HAVE U SEEN OBAMA OPENLY BLAIMING BUSH FOR HIS FAILURE EVEN WHEN EVERY ONE KNOWS THE WHOLE TIN STARTED UNDER BUSH.mchewwwwwwwwwwwwwww..

rhymz: Hahahah.... In a way, Soludo made rubbish of Sanusi's obsession with heavy regulation of the financial market when he said:“stock market crashes will always happen: no amount of ‘reforms’ or ‘regulation’ will stop future ones. The jury is still out on what constitutes ‘appropriate’ regulation or ‘reforms’ of the market: debate raging in US now, over vs under- regulation.”
He made his case here because since he left office, Sanusi and his supporters have always implied that the reason the market crashed was as a result of his laxed regulation and control of the market. Now that the market is heavily regulated and controlled, we still are having thesame problems attributed to Soludo's handling of the market. This goes a long way to show that after all said and done, market crashes were inherently part of the market cycle and not neccessarily as a result of the stiffness or otherwise of regulations.
Another very valid point he made was pointing out to the corrupt law makers how their nefarious activities also contributed to the downfall of the financial market.
"He said the stock market was simply a reflection of what obtained in the larger socio-political strata of any economy saying it was the mismanagement and bad leadership in Nigeria that was responsible for the market crash".
And yes, He was very correct when he said; "Investors are not stupid (when the Market was booming, Nigeria was not rated No.14 failed State in the world— think about this!) They are watching the nonsense going on in our polity and how policy makers somersault policies on their heads, thoughtless policy reversals without minding how it affects long time investments and stuff like that.
How are we sure that the market is not just reflecting the fundamentals of the economy?
This one question Sanusi obviously do not have answers to;“What kind of market do we want — a market that leads the economy or that follows the economy?
Let us define our target/destination and how far we are from it before we know the appropriate vehicle to reach there.
Another question that made Sanusi look like a confused policy maker experimenting on unsound economic policies is this one:“How come that in three years and with monthly oil price averaging $100 per barrel and over 2mbd, and with all the ‘reforms’ in money and capital markets (supposedly there is no more lax regulation/supervision) and despite Dangote’s over N2 trillion listing which lifted the market cap over N8 trillion, the market cap is basically today at the level I left it three years ago?”
Like seriously, Sanusi has driven the market into a standstill that is why everything is crashing.

Please, tell me how Sanusi's regulation which i believe is in line with your economic school of thought, has actually impacted the real sector? You said that Soludo created fake jobs, tell me how many real jobs Sanusi has created? With all the donations and credit lines and 'corporate responsibilities' going on now, how has they impacted the real sector or created even fake jobs as you said it, or improved on ANY of the economic indices that Sanusi met. Bro, no matter how you look at this, Soludo's policies, with all its faults represent progress far more that Sanusi's sanitized banks. Please, point out any of all those weaknesses of Soludo's CBN headship that has improved since Sanusi took over. I really want to know. Just one, and don't tell me 'sanitized banks' unless you will attach the unit of measurement.

Olajide
I don't see the point you are making as it is obvious you are talking from the stand point of bad belle. You contradict yourself and show bias if you are so willing to believe the Data from the CBN under Sanusi as authentic while you dismiss Soludo's as fake and whatever gutter language you want to use.
It is ok if you don't like the man but if you can't detach your emotional disgust towards the man and discuss the main issue then I see no reason debating with you as it is clear you are here to attack personality rather than analyse facts.
Unless you started observing Nigeria's economy and financial sector when your "superstar Sanusi" came on board with his rant about sanitization, it will be very dishonest for anyone to claim that the Nigerian economy was not active during Soludo's era.
Infact if there was any time the manufacturing sector started witnessing big projects and investments from local investors from the likes of Dangote and other foreign investors, it was soludo's era. Entrepreneurs were able to get credit lines from a consortium of nigerian banks to fund big ticket projects that stimulated every aspect of the economy, from manucturing, hospitality, technology to the banking sector. Employment was created and we had more FDI coming in, small businesses were not left out as the new recaptilized micro financed banks gave out interest free loans, it was even obious from Nigeria's GDP at the time.
I don't know what you mean by real money but these projects and expansions of course were funded with money not paper. This stimulation of the economy was represented in facts and figure that I presented to you. Inflateion rate went down, our currency was very much stabilized against the dollar and other major currency
It is very obvious that you are reading supposed facts and figures from your head you want to see be the case. Most of what you have written are conspiracy theories and some are utterly dumb for one to even consider answering them as they have no factual basis. May be what you expected Soludo's CBN to do was to get involved with very stoopid activities like Sanusi is doing, activities that has nothing to do with the CBN.
Under Sanusi the CBN has lost focus and is just groping in the dark. No matter how you want to look at it, Sanusi's policies have been very retrogressive and has not improved our lots. Our Naira has depreciated even more, he has unwittingly brought back the bureau de change to appease a sectional interest, I ask again,"of what economic importance is the Bureau de change?" The CBN is supposed to give advise to the government and help her exercise some restraint on what it spends money on, today, look at our foreign reserve, it has been depleted. To even show that Sanusi is confused, one has to wake up everyday to read on paper that the CBN wants to over the commodities exchange, the CBN wants to go into real estate investments and numerous frivolous stuff like that that shows the CBN is confused on what its jobs are. Seriously Mr, you need to raise the bar of your argument beyond your emotional feelings and hearsay and just address the facts.
I refuse to stoop to the level of hitting below the belt just to score some points. Besides, I find the structure of your write up clumsy and hard to read, you may want to state you points clearly.

Olajide abi Ola"goat" or ola"nama" All i see in your wite up is a stupid and biased yoruba nonsense man trying as hard as possible to discredit any eminent and erudite sons and daughters of igbo on NL. Can u tell me any Yoruba econimist who is as sound as Prof. Soludo who can make or has made an impact in any sector of nigerian economy mchewwwww. People like Dora in NAFDAC, Ngozi in Finace, Ken Nnamani Senate, Soludo CBN.Barth Nnaji NEPA to mention but few....

Olajide abi Ola"goat" or ola"nama" All i see in your wite up is a stupid and biased yoruba nonsense man trying as hard as possible to discredit any eminent and erudite sons and daughters of igbo on NL. Can u tell me any Yoruba econimist who is as sound as Prof. Soludo who can make or has made an impact in any sector of nigerian economy mchewwwww. People like Dora in NAFDAC, Ngozi in Finace, Ken Nnamani Senate, Soludo CBN.Barth Nnaji NEPA to mention but few....

olajide_07: ^with out being sentimental I don't have any personal score to settle with him but I can tell you that inflation reduced on paper and our exchange rate reduce simply because of this action "the rise in foreign reserve from $ 11.44 billion in June 2004 to $60.89billion in August 2008" a quote from you, and that is the impact of increased foreign reserves, I will also try to be as objective as possible facts and from experience(personal), rather then from doctored government figures,(they don't even have the current price of a bottle of vegetable oil, or a mudu of red beans as at today- the nigerian bureau of statistics) are my bases of argument, what are the indices for measuring inflation directly -purchasing power, how did they come about their figures of a reduction from double digit 11%to a single digit 6.5% over the period, without the real indices of development, by restricting spending in some key areas, which is why, they made look like the economy was better, monies where returned to the finance, that was fully utilized after 30th of Dec., by ministries and departments, and this was used to shove up our foreign reserves, temporary jobs were created coja, chogm, name them, its a lie! But, truth on paper, no real jobs, no manufacturing firms as they were leaving nigeria in droves, all these are the data we should personally collate, if you have worked in a bank before, you would ask yourself a question, is it the COT and interest charged on loans, serch fees for opening new accounts minimum balances, that are used to pay salaries of about 12-15 core staffers ie branch manager earns about N750k ABM N450k marketing staff N90-N114k etc, running costs, diesel power, L.G premises taxes, fueling cars used to run around, the office administrative overhead, they are all unsustainable, pls., if I may say, I collected a loan in 2008 and the interest was way above 24% from a commercial bank specifically Diamond, so that to me doesn't hold sway, about a drop in interest rates, reasons why bank can't abide with that official figure are numerous, they will tell you that government have said! but these funds were not given to them by government, so if you want a loan, we charge you what's fair to us, thirdly, how many of these branches were opened in economically viable places and were they were, they were busy acquiring assets not doing banking, to add to their balance sheet, just like they say the economy would crash if they didn't increase fuel price, lazy economics, it would never crash, some banks would have gone international to become affiliates of other selling part ownership and divesting truly, just like stanbic ibtc, and some may have failed not as a result of the recession but as a result of insolvency and bad investment planning, CONSOLIDATION WAS NOT, the PROBLEM it was the manner it was done, no true guideline, that ensured that funds obtained were for the development of the banks operations, rather they went acquiring assets, that they believed would rise based on speculation, but had no direct impact on financing real development, UNIFIED BANKING was the PROBLEM, the ability for the banks to do various businesses under one umbrella, becoming an international player isn't the issue the real issue is how and what is the impact on the economy?did you really become an international player, by borrowing money or by creating money? By developing potential investors within the economy, they may have become part of the top 500 but how many could finance the construction of an oil refinery? Direct impact financing only their balance sheets, imagine a bank with only 72 branches and funds of 1.6trillion -basically fewer staff reduced overhead and more funds to invest over long periods in projects, that's what makes a bank, consolidation was good but unified banking when the same bank would divest into various things using the limited funds available that to me is a no no!

rhymz: Olajide
I don't see the point you are making as it is obvious you are talking from the stand point of bad belle. You contradict yourself and show bias if you are so willing to believe the Data from the CBN under Sanusi as authentic while you dismiss Soludo's as fake and whatever gutter language you want to use.
It is ok if you don't like the man but if you can't detach your emotional disgust towards the man and discuss the main issue then I see no reason debating with you as it is clear you are here to attack personality rather than analyse facts.
Unless you started observing Nigeria's economy and financial sector when your "superstar Sanusi" came on board with his rant about sanitization, it will be very dishonest for anyone to claim that the Nigerian economy was not active during Soludo's era.
Infact if there was any time the manufacturing sector started witnessing big projects and investments from local investors from the likes of Dangote and other foreign investors, it was soludo's era. Entrepreneurs were able to get credit lines from a consortium of nigerian banks to fund big ticket projects that stimulated every aspect of the economy, from manucturing, hospitality, technology to the banking sector. Employment was created and we had more FDI coming in, small businesses were not left out as the new recaptilized micro financed banks gave out interest free loans, it was even obious from Nigeria's GDP at the time.
I don't know what you mean by real money but these projects and expansions of course were funded with money not paper. This stimulation of the economy was represented in facts and figure that I presented to you. Inflateion rate went down, our currency was very much stabilized against the dollar and other major currency
It is very obvious that you are reading supposed facts and figures from your head you want to see be the case. Most of what you have written are conspiracy theories and some are utterly dumb for one to even consider answering them as they have no factual basis. May be what you expected Soludo's CBN to do was to get involved with very stoopid activities like Sanusi is doing, activities that has nothing to do with the CBN.
Under Sanusi the CBN has lost focus and is just groping in the dark. No matter how you want to look at it, Sanusi's policies have been very retrogressive and has not improved our lots. Our Naira has depreciated even more, he has unwittingly brought back the bureau de change to appease a sectional interest, I ask again,"of what economic importance is the Bureau de change?" The CBN is supposed to give advise to the government and help her exercise some restraint on what it spends money on, today, look at our foreign reserve, it has been depleted. To even show that Sanusi is confused, one has to wake up everyday to read on paper that the CBN wants to over the commodities exchange, the CBN wants to go into real estate investments and numerous frivolous stuff like that that shows the CBN is confused on what its jobs are. Seriously Mr, you need to raise the bar of your argument beyond your emotional feelings and hearsay and just address the facts.
I refuse to stoop to the level of hitting below the belt just to score some points. Besides, I find the structure of your write up clumsy and hard to read, you may want to state you points clearly.

Well like I always say its my OPINION, I don't believe I am trying to score cheap points or hitting below the belt, economist argue amongst themselves about their point of views, I am not even an economist I am a marketer and a master degree holder in financial mgt., I am trying to show facts from the peoples point of view, like I normally say I am a street boy, I don't where coats around and sit inside air conditions, I hustle my brother, I neither know sansi from jerk nor soludo, SLS is hausa, soludo is igbo, me my brother yoruba;
1. I don't believe in any of their data, if its coming from Nigerian Bureau of Statistics none is true.
2. I don't think I have contradicted myself I don't have an issues with recapitalization.
3. I have an issue with universal banking
4. Common wealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) held in abuja created about 50,000 Jobs temporarily a year, that's adhoc we want things that would leave after the person it was made for years etc
5. COGA community of african countries games created more then 100,000 jobs for just a year temporary jobs.
6. SLS is trying to development SME's through the bank of industry loans re-capitalising it to give out loans, bank of agriculture for those that need equipment loans for their farms, these have direct impact on you and me and they create real jobs which in turn generates real wealth. Not universal banking
7. I never said the economy was not active, but what policy was making it active giving people like dangote the sole import license to bring in cement, or giving otedola the sole import license to bring in diesel.
8. I can smell a case of personal bias, to sansusi's case of breaking the universal syndrome, removing the power to run bureau de changes, by any one if you have the capital base nothing is stopping you from doing the business yourself seriously their is free entry and exist of any business in nigeria and their are so many bureau de changes owned by non northern their is one beside ecobank at allen avenue ikeja and so many others.
9. Believe this or not, increase in foreign reserves would stabilise and or reduce the exchange rate, in fact any countries exchange rate is directly influenced by their foreign reserves, I would love to school you on that by giving you an example but only if you apologize, a demand for a scare commodity increases the price and reduces the value of your local currency blahablah et al
10. If I may ask what is the role of CBN, (bankers bank) then I don't think he has lost focus by telling banks to go back to what they are supposed to do create money and safe guard people money with them
11. Maybe, I may say he went a bit far with reference to the money given out to bomb victims but that's not the issue I believe the iSsue is what went wrong and whom is in charge of monetary policy management - your saving fixed deposits all lines of money (m0, m1, .m2 and m3)
12. Well for the issue of jobs the banks were trying to reinvest the funds they raise from re-capitalisation and that boosted the capital and property market, what you felt was DFI was actual vulture capitalist coming to take their spoils from our economy while trying to meet up with obligations in their home countries issues of recession in europe america had started way before they made it know to the world they needed to take profit and the capital market and other african countries became targets.
13. From your point of view you have assessed a loan from a MFB I have I even started a MFI and ran it so what may you possibly know.
14. With the issue of the CBN going into real estate business that I don't know O! You are the first person to say this I would find out.
My final submission I don't have any person beaf for Soludo but I have a beaf for the universal banking license he gave banks in nigeria "a developing country"
15. Is it transcorp you are making reference to look at the that now.
16. nigeria's problems can not be looked at from a blanket point of view you just have to look at specifics and measure potential against actual.

de-moore:
Olajide abi Ola"goat" or ola"nama" All i see in your wite up is a stupid and biased yoruba nonsense man trying as hard as possible to discredit any eminent and erudite sons and daughters of igbo on NL. Can u tell me any Yoruba econimist who is as sound as Prof. Soludo who can make or has made an impact in any sector of nigerian economy mchewwwww. People like Dora in NAFDAC, Ngozi in Finace, Ken Nnamani Senate, Soludo CBN.Barth Nnaji NEPA to mention but few....

This is my point of view, Omo ale jati jati, omo ti won fin se ipe fun omo, tribal cocoon, this is politics section and economics, idiot! that is why a clueless government were able to convince an educated illiterate like you that they needed to remove subsidy when in true fact their wasn't any subsidy, they wanted you to fight the so called untouchable cabal that has infiltrated their regime, personally I have no issues with the prof., but like I said earlier the policy on universal banking.

Mr Olajide
I am surprise that you claim to be an industry player and yet erroneously think Universal Banking was part of Soludo's policies. For your information, it was introduced by his predecessor Joseph Sanusi in 2002, Soludo came on board in 2004.
Besides, there was nothing wrong with the model, the issue was not whether you were doing universal banking or whatever form of banking. The problem was in the CBN policy regulatory structure, the institutional framework for effective discharge of the central banking functions is not adding up in the CBN. It is excessively over-politicized. The issue is more of populist programmes rather than core monetary policy agenda for the economy.
There are two major roles of the central bank: that of maintaining monetary price stability, and the banking sector regulation. If both of them have been acclaimed to have failed, it means what is needed actually is not a change in any policy. The problem is not with the policy, the problem is in two major areas. The first major problem area is: instead of building a very strong institution, we are building a very strong personality around a very weak institution. That is what is happening at the central bank and most other Nigerian institutions. You build very strong individuals and then you weaken the institution, instead of the reverse. They don’t bother about building strong institutions.
We keep over emphasizing the individuals in positions, thereby removing the institutional concept that makes the systems work. There is no amount of policy reversal, no amount of ingenuity in policies that will improve the system.
Trying to downplay Soludo's success in stabilizing the naira as if it was an easy feat once there was a huge pool of external reserve without recourse to the fact that his policies grew the reserve even though the price of oil per barrel was not on the high as it has been in Sanusi's era, only shows how weak your argument is and the fact you don't see the correlation let alone "school me".
You are better off trying to understand the facts and basics than schooling anyone here . . . lol
The other issues you raised about the shaddy dealings that went on with the banks and the capital market all boils down to thesame regulatory ineptitude on the part of the Soludo led CBN which one would have expected Sanusi to build upon instead of turning policies on their head.
Presently even with the catagorization of banks, the so-called specialized banks are not lending to the real sector, Sanusi's CBN has criminalized the lending point to the point there is a credit contraption. And there are serious lapses by those who are supposed to be performing oversight functions. In Nigeria, nobody regulates the regulator. The central bank accounts to nobody. And you see heavy amounts of money being dished out by the CBN financing developmental programmes and all that and nobody checks that. You probably heard of the N500 billion injected into the power sector when we all know that funding is not the problem of the power sector. How can such an amount come out of the coffers of an agency of government without passing through appropriation? That is a sign of collapse. Thesame way the CBN wasted 620 billion on the banks they alleged were on the brink of failing, what has become of these banks and the money injected into them?
I wont be surprise that when Sanusi leaves office, there will be dirty revelations of CBN balance sheet showing how bankrupt Sanusi has left it with the way he throws money around without recourse to due process, yet he is the one touting due process and coperate governance in the commercial banks.

rhymz: Mr Olajide
I am surprise that you claim to be an industry player and yet erroneously think Universal Banking was part of Soludo's policies. For your information, it was introduced by his predecessor Joseph Sanusi in 2002, Soludo came on board in 2004.
Besides, there was nothing wrong with the model, the issue was not whether you were doing universal banking or whatever form of banking. The problem was in the CBN policy regulatory structure, the institutional framework for effective discharge of the central banking functions is not adding up in the CBN. It is excessively over-politicized. The issue is more of populist programmes rather than core monetary policy agenda for the economy.
There are two major roles of the central bank: that of maintaining monetary price stability, and the banking sector regulation. If both of them have been acclaimed to have failed, it means what is needed actually is not a change in any policy. The problem is not with the policy, the problem is in two major areas. The first major problem area is: instead of building a very strong institution, we are building a very strong personality around a very weak institution. That is what is happening at the central bank and most other Nigerian institutions. You build very strong individuals and then you weaken the institution, instead of the reverse. They don’t bother about building strong institutions.
We keep over emphasizing the individuals in positions, thereby removing the institutional concept that makes the systems work. There is no amount of policy reversal, no amount of ingenuity in policies that will improve the system.
Trying to downplay Soludo's success in stabilizing the naira as if it was an easy feat once there was a huge pool of external reserve without recourse to the fact that his policies grew the reserve even though the price of oil per barrel was not on the high as it has been in Sanusi's era, only shows how weak your argument is and the fact you don't see the correlation let alone "school me".
You are better off trying to understand the facts and basics than schooling anyone here . . . lol
The other issues you raised about the shaddy dealings that went on with the banks and the capital market all boils down to thesame regulatory ineptitude on the part of the Soludo led CBN which one would have expected Sanusi to build upon instead of turning policies on their head.
Presently even with the catagorization of banks, the so-called specialized banks are not lending to the real sector, Sanusi's CBN has criminalized the lending point to the point there is a credit contraption. And there are serious lapses by those who are supposed to be performing oversight functions. In Nigeria, nobody regulates the regulator. The central bank accounts to nobody. And you see heavy amounts of money being dished out by the CBN financing developmental programmes and all that and nobody checks that. You probably heard of the N500 billion injected into the power sector when we all know that funding is not the problem of the power sector. How can such an amount come out of the coffers of an agency of government without passing through appropriation? That is a sign of collapse. Thesame way the CBN wasted 620 billion on the banks they alleged were on the brink of failing, what has become of these banks and the money injected into them?
I wont be surprise that when Sanusi leaves office, there will be dirty revelations of CBN balance sheet showing how bankrupt Sanusi has left it with the way he throws money around without recourse to due process, yet he is the one touting due process and coperate governance in the commercial banks.

I have left the sector over 5years so I am no longer a player, I don't really see much difference in what I have been trying to say and your last post soludo built individuals through universal banking, (the timing was wrong, my opinon though their is really no right time) rather then institutions through improper DI-vestment of ownership holdings and multiple banking DI-vestments, secondly thanks for the info, I never knew it was started by his predecessor, thank you. But you agree with me that poor supervision majorly caused the challenges, and it is correctable their is a principle in finance that allows for debts to be written off. I can't remember the terminology right now, but the CBN did not give them the money, it was a bailout and they are collecting it back now well I have talked to much let's leave it at that