The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, CIBN, has urged financial journalists to play a stronger role in explaining and scrutinising reforms reshaping Nigeria’s banking, taxation and financial-technology landscape.
Registrar and Chief Executive of the Institute, Akin Morakinyo, made the call in a goodwill message at the annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria in Lagos.
The conference focused on “Building on the Gains of Recapitalisation, Tax Reform and Fintech Revolution,” bringing financial journalists together with regulators, bankers, fintech operators, economists and policymakers. The event and theme are independently confirmed by multiple reports.
Morakinyo argued that economic reforms cannot achieve their full objectives when businesses and ordinary Nigerians do not understand what policymakers are changing, why those changes are being introduced and how they affect economic decisions.
Media Must Translate Complex Reforms
Nigeria’s financial system is undergoing significant change.
Banks have been raising fresh capital, the tax system is being restructured and digital financial services continue to expand.
Each development can involve highly technical rules.
For journalists, the challenge is translating those policies into information ordinary businesses and households can understand without oversimplifying them.
Morakinyo said the media’s responsibility therefore extends beyond announcing new policies.
Financial journalists must help explain their consequences and provide the public with information needed to evaluate whether promised reforms are actually delivering results.
The message closely mirrors comments from Nigeria’s Tax Ombud, John Nwabueze, at the same conference. Nwabueze urged financial journalists to go beyond government announcements and scrutinise how tax reforms operate in practice.
Recapitalisation Enters Next Phase
The banking recapitalisation exercise provides one example of why that scrutiny matters.
FICAN Chairman Chima Nwokoji told the conference that Nigerian banks had raised about ₦4.65 trillion, with approximately 73 per cent coming from domestic investors, and challenged banks to demonstrate how that capital would support productive sectors of the economy.
That shifts the public conversation from whether banks can satisfy new capital requirements to what stronger balance sheets eventually mean for lending, investment and economic activity.
For financial journalists, the next stage involves tracking how banks deploy their stronger capital positions rather than treating recapitalisation as complete once fundraising targets have been met.
Fintech Adds New Layer
The rapid growth of financial technology creates another reporting challenge.
Digital payments have made financial services more accessible, while mobile money, digital lenders and fintech platforms have changed how Nigerians save, borrow and make payments.
Those innovations can expand financial inclusion.
They can also create questions around consumer protection, data security, fraud, regulation and the safety of customer funds.
Understanding the difference between a fintech platform, licensed bank, microfinance institution, payment service bank and mobile money operator is consequently becoming increasingly important for both journalists and consumers.
The NDIC, for instance, applies different insurance limits depending on the category of institution and provides specific pass-through arrangements for qualifying mobile-money subscribers.
Accurate reporting becomes especially important when those distinctions determine the protection available to customers.
CIBN Stresses Agenda-Setting Role
Morakinyo also invoked the media’s traditional position as the Fourth Estate and its agenda-setting role in society.
He urged financial journalists to use that influence responsibly rather than simply amplifying official statements.
The underlying argument is that what the financial press chooses to investigate can influence the quality of public debate.
If reporting focuses only on announcements, implementation failures can receive insufficient attention.
If coverage examines results, costs, beneficiaries and unintended consequences, policymakers and institutions face stronger pressure to explain their performance.
FICAN Marks 36 Years
Morakinyo congratulated FICAN on its 36th anniversary, describing the association’s longevity as evidence of its continued relevance to Nigeria’s financial system.
FICAN’s anniversary conference brought together institutions across banking, regulation, fintech and public policy, continuing a relationship between specialist financial journalism and the institutions its members cover.
For CIBN, that relationship should remain professional rather than passive.
As Nigeria moves from announcing major reforms to implementing them, financial journalism will increasingly be judged on whether it can explain who benefits, who bears the costs, whether targets are being met and how policy changes affect businesses and households in practical terms.
That makes accurate, independent and accessible reporting an important part of the reform process itself.
