CBN Considers Establishing Commercial Courts
 30th NOV 2006

CBN Governor, Charles Soludo, said the apex bank is carrying out a study on the need to establish commercial courts in Nigeria.

This is an effort to checkmate protracted litigations, which impose undue delay in meeting the demands of depositors of failed banks.

Soludo made the announcement in Abuja at a public lecture on "The imperatives of effective legal framework and judicial process for a sound depositor protection system."

He also made a presentation of "The Nigerian banking law reports" at the occasion, which was packaged by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation to mark the 2006 Depositors' Protection Awareness Week.

Soludo, who was represented by Mr. Ernest Ebi, Deputy Governor (Corporate Services), underscored the urgent need for a review of the judicial system and noted that the judiciary had a major role to play in the effort to evolve a sound and efficient financial system.

He also noted that a deposit insurance system was one of the components of the financial safety net that includes regulation, supervision, and financial stability.

"Failure to establish a strong safety net has some dire consequences in the ability to contain systemic shocks and customer confidence in the system," he stated.

The governor noted that the theme of the week, "Depositors protection: Legal and liquidation challenges," was apt and identified the corporation's challenges as low level of public awareness, inadequate legal framework and cumbersome judicial process.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Alfa Belgore, who was chairman of the occasion, noted the proliferation of law reports and said there were essential things in the reports.

Belgore commended the NDIC for the initiative and urged other corporate bodies to emulate it.

In his comments, the immediate past CJN, Justice Modibbo Uwais, said the book made research easier and recommended it to the academia, legal practitioners and researchers.

He said that Depositors' Protection Awareness Week was organised to sensitise depositors of the 34 failed banks to come forward and claim the liquidation dividends declared in their favour.

He said the delay in resolving failed bank cases remained a major challenge to the judiciary.

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