The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has recovered over N60 billion excess charges imposed by banks on customers and returned the money to the owners.

The amount, the apex bank said, was recovered following complaints by 13,000 customers over excess and illegal charges on their accounts by banks.

The CBN Deputy Director, Consumer Protection Department, Chinyere Obilor, disclosed this at a sensitisation forum organised in Owerri, by the apex bank.

“The Department received over 13,000 complaints from aggrieved members of the banking public and recovered over N60 billion excess bank charges and returned the same to the rightful owners”, Vanguard Newspaper quoted Mrs Obilor as saying.

She said some of the banks were commensurately sanctioned for the observable unethical practices.

She urged the banking public to promptly report any unethical practice by commercial banks to the CBN, for what she called “immediate action”.

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Earlier in his remark, the CBN Director of Corporate Communication, Isaac Okoroafor, said by 2025, no fewer than 10 million jobs would be created in Nigeria, through CBN activities.

“This will be achieved through 10 commodity models carefully chosen by CBN management. They include cotton, cocoa, maize, dairy, palm oil, fishery, poultry, cattle, tomato, and cassava,” Mr.Okoroafor was quoted as saying.

He said the CBN will give out high yielding seedlings, fingerlings, and other inputs, to farmers, stressing that the CBN remained committed to the welfare of farmers.

“As a way of assisting farmers, the CBN will provide anchor companies, who will buy off the products from the farmers immediately after harvest. This will create the best value chain for the farm products,” he said.

He said plans were in top gear to establish farm settlements, adding that “this will be the easiest way of building the nation’s economy.”

Mr Okoroafor also said that “the Nigerian economy would have collapsed long ago, if not for CBN intervention.”