The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has recovered over N50 billion as excessive charges imposed on customers by banks so far.

CBN spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor, said this at the ongoing Abuja International Trade fair.

He said the apex bank was ensuring that bank customers are not overburdened by irrelevant charges.

He said that the money was recovered by the Consumer Protection Department of the bank over the last three years.

“We have always asked bank customers to report all cases of suspected illegal and excessive charges they feel their banks may have imposed on them. Bank customers must ensure they visit the CBN website to see the approved charges banks are expected to make of their customers,” Mr. Okorafor said.

Okorafor added that so far about N43.92 billion has been disbursed to local farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, ABP, its agricultural intervention initiative.

“At harvest, the smallholder farmers supplies his or her produce to the agro-processor, who pays the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account. We cannot continue to allow our farmers go hungry, while we pay huge amounts of money on imports that enrich farmers from other countries. This is why then CBN said if anyone would want to import any of the 41 items, one must source for their own foreign exchange,” Okoroafor said.

Azeez