African press review 6 September

Are Nigeria's banks in a fit state to keep your cash? Has South Africa's government destabilised its banks? Is Africa the place for investors to be?

How safe is your money in the bank?

In Nigeria, it seems, some people fear the answer is not very.

And, reports of "stress tests" by the Central Bank of Nigeria have made some customers more worried still.

An editorial in the Lagos daily the Guardian seeks to reassure them.

The Central Bank's reported ‘‘stress tests” on all the deposit money banks should not be misunderstood, the paper says.

Given the current economic recession in the country, apprehensions have been raised regarding the state of health of banks despite consistent assurances that no bank is at the risk, the paper says.

It is necessary for the general public to understand that one of the primary functions and responsibilities of the Central Bank is to ensure that the banking system is healthy, sound, resilient and sustainable, it argues.

Stress-testing a bank, the Guardian explains, involves assessing and evaluating the health, soundness, stability and sustainability of the bank, which should not excite panic.

In place of liquidation, the CB has developed less painful intervention strategies for handling distressed banks..

All OK then? Don't panic. Don't withdraw all your cash from the bank and hide it under the bed. Not yet, anyway.

SA banks destabilised

In South Africa Business Day's editorial muses on a similar theme. .

Under the headline "Nothing positive in recklessness", the paper tells its readers that "Banks are not like other businesses."

"For banks, confidence is their most important asset. They take deposits from the public and lend out multiples of that money, often in the form of long-term loans, such as mortgages," it says.

"Any move that erodes confidence in the banking system, or certainty about the policy framework that governs the system, is dangerous, because it can prompt a run on deposits that can bring down individual banks, or infect the system as a whole."

What worries Business Day is what it calls "the rather mad string of events" that began last week with the mineral resources minister’s proposal to restructure the entire regulatory framework for the country's financial sector and ended with the cabinet's repudiating his statement.

No explanation has been provided as to why a fairly junior minister thought it appropriate to go public with such a statement. Nor, laments the paper, has the minister been reprimanded, much less fired.

Business Day says the debacle has served to make it clear to the outside world, to investors, ratings agencies and others on whose views SA’s economic fortunes depend just how dysfunctional is government in South Africa.

Africa Investment Summit moves ... to Africa

Staying with finance, the Daily Monitor in Uganda reports on the inaugural Global African Investment Summit which opened yesterday in the Rwandan capital Kigali, with political leaders and business executives agreeing that Africa is on the right trajectory of development.

The paper tells us that it's the first time the summit has been held in Africa. Previously it took place in London, which is in itself significant.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told delegates that “Africa is the place to be right now.”

But, there are still structural bottlenecks such as underdevelopment of infrastructure.

Regional economic integration is the only way to cure the problems, Museveni is quoted as saying.

The summit is considering the creation of a Tripartite Free Trade Area to integrate Africa’s three major regional economic blocs; the East African Community, Southern African Development Community and the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa.

The Monitor's editorial looks elsewhere, noting that "the country is still basking in the historic achievement of the Cranes, the national football team, after it ended four decades of agony by reaching the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations."

I'm reminded of the legendary football manager who said : "Football isn't a matter of life and death. It's more important than that."

If you know who said that answers on a postcard please to Press reviewer, le Service Anglophone, Radio France Internationale, 80 rur Camille Desmoulins, 92130 Issy Les Moulineaux, France.