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Professor Graham Penn recently concluded a significant trip to Nigeria (he has previously undertaken similar trips to Kenya and South Africa), where he spearheaded a number of critical initiatives aimed at advancing finance and regulatory frameworks in the region, all on a pro bono basis.

During his visit, Professor Penn delivered the prestigious annual lecture for the at the Civic Conference Centre in Lagos. The lecture, which was attended by an in person and online audience of over 2000 individuals and was widely covered on national Nigerian TV, focused on "Improving Availability of Credit in the Nigerian Real Economy: The Critical Importance of Liquidity." It explored the challenges facing the diversification of funding within the banking sector and discussed the impact of the Bank of Nigeria's recent announcement regarding a substantial increase in the minimum capital requirements for all banks operating in Nigeria.

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In addition to delivering the CIBN鈥檚 annual lecture, Professor Penn led a number of round table discussions with government officials and policy makers in Lagos and Abuja to develop alternate financing mechanisms to bridge the existing real economy funding gap and unlock much needed financing to support critical infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, and hospitals. Those round table discussions included a high-level focus group advising on the legal and regulatory changes needed to facilitate financing by way of securitisation, a project Professor Penn has been advising on for a number of years.

听In Abuja, Professor Penn also met with the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission and other government and industry stakeholders at the Nigeria Capital Market Institute to discuss the establishment of a pan-Africa cross-border securities trading and settlement platform, with the goal of enhancing financial integration and securities settlement across the continent.

Professor Penn said about the experience 鈥� I was delighted to deliver the听Annual Lecture for the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria in Lagos earlier this week. I confess I had not anticipated such a large audience, both in person and online (and on Nigerian TV), and I feel sure the timing of the Central Bank of Nigeria鈥檚 recent announcement of a significant increase (up to 2000% in many cases) in the minimum capital requirements for all banks operating in Nigeria had much to do with that. That development, which is scheduled to be implemented over the next two years, will have an enormous impact on the ability of the Nigerian banking sector to provide much needed funding to the Nigerian real economy, including the financing of critical infrastructure projects, but the many challenges, which I covered in my lecture, in ensuring that funding is diversified by the banking sector (and the associated use of capital maximised for lending purposes), remain to be addressed. I very much look forward to continuing to work with all the important stakeholders in Nigeria to find appropriate solutions to those challenges.鈥�

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