The Presidency, yesterday, said the ‘staggering’ profits recorded by Nigeria’s top banks despite the economic hardship suggested some level of exploitation of ordinary Nigerians.

Special Adviser on Economic Affairs to the President (Office of the Vice President), Tope Fasua, raised the concern at the 2024 Nigerian Risk Leadership Summit and Awards in Abuja organised by Conrad Clark with the theme ‘Connecting Risk, Resilience and Innovation for Sustainable Growth’.

Fasua noted that despite the global economic breakdown and hardship, top banks in Nigeria were recording more than 300 per cent increase in profit.

“When I did my research, the profit banks in Nigeria made in 2023 raised questions. Most of them were making 300 per cent increase in profit in a year, in this same country that people are finding it difficult to survive.

“If we say we are running a free market economy and people are taking advantage of the citizens of this country, making 330 to 350 per cent increase in profit in one year; it is not done in any country,” he stated.

The economic adviser also appealed to Nigerians to stop speaking ill of the country, asserting that the economic situation did not affect Nigeria alone.

Citing the recent protest in Kenya occasioned the country’s controversial Finance Bill 2024, Fasua cautioned Nigerians against contemplating the model adopted by the Kenyans, saying the country lost about N2 trillion to the #EndSARS protest in 2020.

He stated: “The global economic system has broken down. Beyond Nigeria, we look at Kenya and the disruption they had with their country two weeks ago because of the wrong policy that resulted in the #EndSARS scenario we had here. But at the end of the day, it was the destruction of the country and values, which will have to be fixed with the resources of the same country that would have otherwise been for the people. The global economic system has broken down from Pakistan to Europe to everywhere. People are agitating and we will likely see a lot more demonstrations.”

“But how can we avert #EndSARS upon #EndSARS? In #EndSARS alone, we lost N2 trillion in terms of value. Since 2020, the top tech companies of the world have tripled their market value. Some of the companies are worth less than N1 trillion in 2020. What happened? And Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to make that even more complicated. So, when you have asked the question of what is the future of skilled work in Nigeria, you ought to be thinking od AI revolution that has come.”

According to Fasua, who represented Vice President Kashim Shettima at the event, the world awaits the rapid and inescapable impact of AI, Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet on our world.

Managing Director of Conrad Clark, Joachim Adenusi, maintained that resilience, innovation and sustainability were critical in overcoming crises, uncertainties and difficulties.

He stressed the need to explore innovative approaches to managing risks “so that we can equip industry leaders and policymakers with the appropriate knowledge and tools to make informed decisions that will best benefit the growth of our great nation.” (The Guardian)

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