The Central Bank of Nigeria in Ogun State has said the spate of bank robberies poses a threat to quality service delivery to bank customers in the state.

The Branch Controller of CBN in Abeokuta, Mr. Adewale Ojoawo, who spoke during  the 2011 Dinner/Awards Night of the Abeokuta Clearing House Committee on Saturday, however, commended the efforts of the state government and relevant security agencies at curbing crimes.

“The security challenge across the state, particularly in Ijebu Ode, Sagamu and Abeokuta in the last few months have threatened the delivery of a smooth and unhindered banking service,” he said.

He called for better cooperation among stakeholders in this regard.

Ojoawo said, “As we march into a new financial year, we hope that this problem would be surmounted.”

The controller explained that the year witnessed a decrease in clearing activities, as manifest in the volume and value of clearing instruments.

According to him, in comparison with the preceding year, a decrease of 15.16 per cent was recorded in the volume of cheques cleared as at November 30, 2011.

During the same period, he added there was a decline of 0.03 per cent in the value of the cheques cleared, a situation he attributed to the manual e-payment policy. He stated that the decline was expected to be more pronounced in 2012 when the end to end e-payment policy would have fully taken-off.

He believed that the newly introduced Uniform Bank Account Numbers had helped tremendously in facilitating the clearing process.

The CBN senior official noted that there was no case of fraud recorded through clearing instruments in Abeokuta Clearing zone in the out going year, just as in the previous year.

He said the apex bank was committed to ensuring a sustainable sound financial system through a sanitised banking industry.

The Chairman, Bank Managers’ Forum, in Abeokuta, Mr. Bola Onifade, while reviewing the activities of the group also  identified security as one of the several challenges that its committee was facing in the state.

He commended both the state Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Nicholas Nkemdeme, for their swift responses to the security challenge.

During the ceremony, GTBank  defeated other banks to emerge the best bank in the state, while Skye Bank and Oceanic Bank emerged the first and second runners’ up respectively.

The award for the bank with the highest volume of cheques award went to the First Bank of Nigeria, while the  best dressed female and male bankers of the year awards went to Folashade Oreka and Oluwatobi Ayorinde.

-Punch