That ill-advised suspension of banks from forex market

Although all the nine banks –First Bank, Diamond Bank, Sterling Bank, Skye Bank, Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa, Keystone Bank, First City Monument Bank, and Heritage Bank — suspended from the foreign exchange market have since been readmitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the episode points to the need for caution when the regulatory authorities decide to wield the hammer to redress perceived violations.

Even before the formal announcement of a recession by the Federal Government, most economists were of the view that the economy was headed in that direction. All the economic indices were negative and getting progressively worse from the first quarter right through the second quarter. Now the economy has contracted by 2.6 per cent.