Troubled Banks get New Chairmen, DGs

CBN Governor Mr. Lamido Sanusi

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Sunday approved new management teams for the three nationalised banks-Afribank Plc, Bank PHB Plc and Spring Bank Plc.

The appointment was announced by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.

AMCON in the statement announcing the appointments said “The newly appointed boards are entrusted with the mandate to manage these banks along best commercial practice to compete effectively in the Nigerian banking sector and provide quality service to customers.

“Depositors are again assured that their deposits are safe, and employees are also assured of seamless continuity of business operations and job functions.”

The move followed Friday’s takeover of the three troubled banks by the Federal Government and the decision to inject N678.5bn into the banks by AMCON.

The banks, along with Union Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc; Finbank Plc; and Oceanic International Bank Plc, had been given up to September 30 to recapitalise or face liquidation.

But sources told THE PUNCH that the Federal Government reviewed the situation last week in Abuja and concluded that it would be risky to allow the three banks to operate till September 30.

Already, Afribank Plc, has been renamed Mainstreet Bank Limited; while Bank PHB now bears Keystone Bank Limited Spring Bank Plc is also now Enterprise Bank Limited.

Following the CBN approval, Keystone Bank Limited now has Mr. Jacobs Moyo Ajekigbe as Chairman, while Mr. Oti Ikomi would serve as the Managing Director.

Ajekigbe is the former Managing Director of First Bank Plc succeeded by Mr. Lamido Sanusi, the current CBN Governor. The statement further said that Mr. Shehu Abubakar; Mr. Demola Adewale; Mrs. Yvonne Isichei; Dr. Shehu Mohammed; and Mr. Raphael Ereyi would serve as Executive Directors.

For Mainstreet Bank, the statement said that Mr. Falalu Bello would serve as Chairman, while Mrs. Faith Tuedor-Matthews, would now be the bank’s Managing Director. Bello was the Group Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc before he resigned on July 1 this year.

The Executive Directors are Mr. Kola Ayeye, Mr. Abubakar Sadiq Bello, Mr. Bolaji Shenjobi, Mr. Anogwi Anyanwu and Mr. Roger Woodbridge. The statement also named Mr. Emeka Onwuka as Chairman of Enterprise Bank Limited, while Mr. Ahmed Kuru was appointed the bank’s Managing Director.

Onwuka was the Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc before he retired on April 1 after serving the bank for 19 years. For the position of Executive Directors, the apex bank appointed Mrs. Louisa Olalokun, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, Mr. Aminu Ismail, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, and Mr. Audu Kazir.

Other members of the board, according to the statement, will soon be announced.

It said, “The CBN has granted the same interbank guarantee as it did to the banks that have signed Transaction Implementation Agreements, until December 31 2011.

“The banks are therefore fully capitalised, strengthened and well positioned for future growth.”

AMCON on Saturday at a press conference in Lagos had said that by Monday (today), it would take over Spring Bank Plc, Afribank Plc and Bank PHB Plc and recapitalise them to the tune of N110.5bn, N285bn and N283bn respectively through the issuance of bonds in order to raise their capital adequacy ratio to 15 per cent.

The fresh N678.5bn brings to N1.298.5tn the total amount injected into the eight rescued banks after the CBN had earlier bailed them out with N620bn in 2009.

The CBN had said that the move was to ensure that the eight rescued banks were fully recapitalised by September 30, in order to end the crisis plaguing the Deposit Money Banks operating in the country.

It added that AMCON would recapitalise the nationalised banks before sourcing for new investors, an exercise that might take up to two or three years, and that all deposits with the bridge banks had been guaranteed by the apex bank.

Meanwhile, findings by one of our correspondents revealed that the revocation of the licences of the three banks was done by the Federal Government as a pre-emptive measure to prevent other banks that had inter-bank deposits with the nationalised banks from withdrawing their funds before September 30.

It was also learnt that the move was also a technical way of solving the crisis in the affected banks by ensuring that the banks continued in operation but in a different form.

Illegal refining: JTF intensifies patrol of N’Delta waterways

There were indications on Sunday that the military might have intensified its patrol of the waterways in the Niger Delta following the recent discovery of illegal oil refineries in the region.

The military Joint Task Force had in March, destroyed over 500 illegal oil refineries in the region in a move to curtail the destruction of oil pipelines and wellheads by oil thieves.

The JTF also destroyed over 600 illegal refineries in the region last December, an illegal business which industry experts say costs the country a loss of about 100,000 of crude oil per day.

The JTF spokesman, Lt. Col Timothy Antigha, who confirmed the renewed onslaught on the illegal oil business, noted that at least four suspects had been arrested in connection with the crime.

The military, he said, had considerably reduced the activities of the militants noting, however, that its major challenge was how to curb the illegal activities of the bunkerers who had resorted to local refining.

Antigha also refuted reports that there was a lull in its efforts to curb militancy in the area because some of the military officers had been moved to fight Boko Haram in the north.

He said, “Last month, we (the military) raided many illegal oil refineries because that seems to be the major challenge now since militancy has significantly receded. We have also redirected our energies to the patrol of central areas in the Niger Delta and we will continue to chase the criminals.

“These products are poorly refined and this is added to the issue of environmental pollution when they break crude oil pipes because they don’t have the technology to seal them back. Even their illegally refined products damage car engines and cause kerosene explosions.

“We have raided them several times and we will continue to intensify the raids until we chase them out and stop their nefarious activities. The JTF is confronting them frontally because this is pure economic sabotage.

“They steal oil; they damage pipelines and in the course of that they pollute the environment because they do not meet industry standards.”

The military, he added, was on the trail of the sponsors of those involved, adding that all the states in the region were involved in the illegal business.

He said the four arrested persons were already helping in unmasking the sponsors of oil bunkering.

He also called on all concerned agencies to support the JTF in advocacy and public enlightenment in their efforts.

“The JTF calls on all concerned agencies of government to key into our activities by way of advocacy, prosecution and public enlightenment because this is a very dangerous business and we need their support,” he added