SAN FRANCISCO, December 11, (THEWILL) – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has sold N4.1 trillion worth of the instrument in the money market following last week’s introduction of 90-day special bills.
The instrument is expected to avail the monetary authority additional liquidity management tool, support the country’s economic recovery efforts and deepen the financial market as the CBN has also announced new capital requirement and licence categorisation for payment service providers (PSP).
Also, the CBN stated that the instrument shall not be accepted for repurchase agreement transactions with the CBN and shall not be discountable at the CBN window but said the instrument will qualify as liquid assets in the computation of liquidity ratio for deposit money banks.
The sale of the 90-day special bills into the money market came just as CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, outlined the impact of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), set up to finance smallholder farmers.
Emefiele said the programme has revolutionised agricultural credit financing and remained the fulcrum of transformation initiatives in the sector.
Features of the special bills, introduced by the CBN, include zero-coupon, applicable yield at issuance to be determined by the CBN; the instrument will be tradable amongst banks, retail and institutional investors.
On the new capital requirement and licence categorisation for payment service providers, the CBN, in a circular posted on its website which was signed by its Director, Payment System Management Department, CBN, Mr. Musa Jimoh, put the new capital requirement for mobile money operations as well as switching and processing companies at N2 billion respectively. The circular was dated December 9, 2020,
The minimum capital requirement Payment Solution Services (PSS) was pegged at N250 million while that of super-agents is now N50 million.
Also, Payment Terminal Service Providers (PTSP) and Payment Solutions Service Providers (PSSP) are required to have N100 million minimum capital requirement respectively.
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