Banks to become Accessible by People living with Disabilities – CBN

Mallam Lamido Sanusi has disclosed that every bank operating in Nigeria will soon be compelled to have at least one branch that is accessible by disabled persons within every city in Nigeria.

The policy was introduced at the last Banker’s Committee meeting and is embarked upon with a view to closing in on the unbanked portion of society.

Speaking recently to a delegation of Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, Sanusi shed light on the origin and finer points of the initiative.

He said, “We have actually been working on an affirmative action policy for the disabled. At the last Bankers’ Committee meeting where we talked about women, I told them we are going to come up with a policy that will make sure that every bank has in every town at least one branch that is disabled-friendly.

“We will not ask them to restructure every of their 400 branches; but in Abuja, there should be a branch; in Kano, a branch; in every city, a branch. In Lagos, you go to Ikoyi, Victoria Island or Ikeja, in each of those areas, at least every bank must say this is our disabled-friendly branch and this has already been announced to them at the Bankers’ Committee.”

“We just have not yet finalized the regulation that we are going to issue it and we are happy to have received you now, because we now know one or two things that we are going to consider,” he added.

Speaking on the Corporate Social Responsibility efforts of the bank and its employees as regards contributions to assuaging the plight of the disabled, Sanusi added, ““In the CBN, the staff actually made contributions, and right now, we are building a hall for the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Nigeria, and this is our own individual contribution as staff of the apex bank.”