Nigeria Banks Spend $86m on Foreign Software

Nigerian banks have spent $86 million on core banking solutions in their quest to implement and maintain cutting-edge applications that serve financial needs, Nigerian CommunicationsWeek investigations can now.
The sum is just the initial licensing fees depending on usage and functionality that comes with the applications.
Banks with branch network of up to 350 and above spend about $8 million each for their licenses and this category are Union bank, First Bank, United Bank for Africa, Intercontinental bank, Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank.
Oceanic bank, Bank PHB, Diamond bank, Sky bank, Unity Bank, Access Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity Bank, Afribank, and First City Monument Bank have each spent between $2 million-$4million on foreign solutions. This group of banks have branch network of 150 to 300.
Elsewhere, banks with less than 130 branches got their application license at $1million. In this group are Equatorial Trust Bank, Finbank, Stanbic IBTC, SpringBank, Citi group, Standard Chartered, Wema Bank and Sterling Bank.
But the initial licensing fee excludes an annual renewal fee of 15per cent to