Saturday, 16 June 2012 00:00

Written by Dele Alao

THE country's apex financial institution, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has warned accredited printers against producing sub-standard security instruments such as cheques and interest/dividens warrants, among others for the Nigerian market. In a circular titled:
Printing of Security Instruments and dated May 24,2012, the CBN said, "The Nigeria Cheque Standard (NCS) and the Nigeria Cheque Printers Accredited Scheme (NICPAS) Document state that all security instruments (cheques, interest/divident warrants etc) produced for the Nigerian market must meet the stipulated standard, However, the MICR Technical Imlementation Committee has noted with concern that most of the  dividend/interest warrants produced for the Nigerian market do not meet the specified standard.

Going   forward,   accredited cheque printers will be sanctioned for security instruments produced  by them that fail to meet the  required standard," the memo signed by the Director, Banking and Payments System Department, CBN, DipoFatokun added. Meanwhile, Nigeria's interbank lending rates climbed higher to an average of 15.66 percent this week from 14.5 percent last week, after
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) recalled a portion of its deposits with some lenders and forex purchases drained liquidity.

Traders said the market opened with a cash deficit of about N78.7 billion ($482.82 million) on Friday compared with a surplus of about 10 billion naira last week.
"The market is very short this week because of large cash outflows to foreign exchange purchases, NNPC withdrawals and debit for cash reserves," one dealer said.
The secured Open Buy Back (OBB) climbed to 15 percent from 14.25 percent last week, 300 basis points above the central bank's 12 percent benchmark rate and 5 percentage points above the Standing Deposit Facility (SDF) rate. Overnight placement and call money closed at 16 percent each compared with 14.5 percent and 14.75 percent last week respectively.
"We see rates inching up early next week as the dearth of funds persist until the next budgetary allocation to government agencies hits the system hopefully later next week," another dealer said.