Lamido Sanusi, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has sought to reassure the international financial community that the country's bank sector is stable amid growing fears about its health.

Declaring "we will not allow any bank to fail" and that the state would stand behind their debts, he said banks would soon be re-capitalised with new money and foreign lenders allowed to buy stakes.

Sanusi's declaration, made at a conference in London, comes just two weeks after the central bank was