LONDON: The head of Nigeria's central bank, Lamido Sanusi, said he was prepared to break with a decades-old ban on foreign takeovers of its banks, in an interview with the Financial Times.

"What we have today is that the central bank is not likely to support a foreign bank owning more than 10 percent of a top tier Nigerian bank. That is something that in my view needs to be looked at again," Sanusi said.

He said the ban was not a legal requirement but policy of the previous leadership of theCentral Bank of Nigeria.

"If as governor of central bank I am okay to have a bank owned by nominees and I don?t know who owns them, why wouldn?t I be comfortable with a bank owned by Barclays, or HSBC or China Construction Bank, who I know?" he added.

"For me it?s a no-brainer."