THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may soon begin to pry into credit and macro-economic activities of commercial banks, to ensure their risk components do not make them go distress.The apex bank is therefore, considering the adoption of a risk-based supervision and macro-prudential framework for the banks, where credit risk officers forum would be created as a preventive measure against crisis in the banking industry.The hints of the impending measure came from the CBN''s Deputy Governor, Financial Stability, Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, who spoke two days ago, at a retreat organised by Risk Managers Association of Nigeria (RIMAN), in Lagos.Moghalu, who delivered a lecture titled: Meeting the Challenges of Capacity Building in Risk Management in the Financial Services Industry,' said it was necessary to embrace a holistic approach towards risk management in Nigeria''s financial institutions, especially in the attempt to mitigate banks'' failure.''There is need to embrace a holistic approach towards risk management. Banks fail everywhere in the world. The fact that we are lucky to scale through the economic downturn in 2009 does not mean we should not avoid systemic failure.''Embracing the enterprise-wide approach to risk management will help financial institutions change their perception about risk management and channel their resources towards averting risks in the system.Conyinuing, he said: ''In many financial institutions, particularly banks, the different risk exposures are managed in silos, with more emphasis on credit risk management. Viewing risk management across the organisation''s different functions minimizes the possibility of overlooking other risks. A silo view of risk management may allow gaps in control to persist.''If positioned correctly within the organisation to support the achievement of organisational objectives, effective enterprise risk management can be a value-added process that improves long-term organizational performance', he said.Moghalu however, noted that various reforms to enhance risk management operations will be introduced and implemented before the end of the year.He also announced that the bankers'' committee was in the process of setting up a risk forum to ensure that risks are mitigated and detect early distress signals before they impact negatively on the apex bank''s policies and the economy.On how to enhance capacity building for risk managers in the financial sector, Moghalu said there was need to make risk management a management function in order to ensure that crisis are prevented before they happen, especially when decisions are made at the board level.''Nigeria is presently facing dearth of knowledgeable and skilled manpower in the area of risk management. When you find them, they are often not part of the decision making process. Risk management is still at the rudimentary level in the country and needs to be enhanced by professionalising the practice,' he said.
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