New banks get MDs

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 said 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.