who is the current chairman of AFC?

folks just need a litttle bit of more info

i cant see AFC on the CBN list of Debtors, is this a cover up by CBN ?

I see it, apparently he is the Chairman of AFC, a company that has a stake in Notore that took the loan.

sorry for going off topic

is this not being repeated in Dangote heading the NSE

blacksta:

Well Said - I guess some people are clouded by sentiments . The list released are for those who have borrowed money without servicing it. The other fact Soludo should not have taken up the position of AFC whilst being the CBN Gov.

This is akin to claiming that the former chairman of the African Union (AU) is indebted to the world bank because AU owes world bank even though the chairmanship position is being rotated amongst heads of states in the African continent.

@  Afam

For your information, the African Finance Corporation is a privately owned entity.  It has a board of directors all of whom are private investors in the investment bank. It is not an intergovernmental financial organisation under the aegis of the African Union.

Charles Soludo was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the bank, hence he has been the chairman of the board for a while.  The bank's operations are not very transparent. You  only need to read Sonala Olumhese's article on 3rd Aug 2008 in the village voice and things will be a lot clearer. 

Soludo as chairman of the board of directors is there to represent himself as an investor and not in his capacity as the CBN Governor, that raises the question of conflict of interest.

The operations of the African Finance Corporation need to be re- examined by the relevant regulatory authorities.

@kuramo,

Thanks for the information provided.

I made my comment based on the fact that without Soludo being the CBN governor there is no chance in hell that he would have been given a chairmanship position in the AFC.

Now, who is the current chairman of the AFC? Is the chairman still Soludo who does not have any powers as CBN governor or has the chairmanship position been given to the current CBN boss, Sanusi?

Answers to these questions will help us know the facts because I am tired of the lazy journalism that is going on where people sit in their offices and decide what they want to feed Nigerians using their media outfits.

Many thanks for your time.

@ Afam,

Here is the article, hope you find it helpful.


African Finance Corporation: Rusting Gold
Written by Sonala Olumhense
Sunday, 03 August 2008
African Finance Corporation: Rusting Gold
Sonala Olumhense

First of all, let me confess my admiration of the Chukwuma Soludo type: a man who does things and is not afraid to err.

To this man, as Governor of the Central Bank, we owe much of the wide-ranging reform of the nation’s banking sector and the relative discipline it now enjoys. He will also be remembered for the bold effort at re-denominating the Naira.

Perhaps his biggest enterprise, if only in terms of its Africa-wide application, is the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). In its purest form, the AFC was designed as a machinery that would jumpstart the economic revival of Africa by bridging our huge funding gap that stands at about $16bn per annum.

Sitting in front of his computer at the Central Bank, Soludo must have been overwhelmed to see an ocean of funds belonging to Nigeria. It gave him an idea: a revolutionary endeavor that would channel these funds into a revolving investment machinery. His idea, bought immediately by President Olusegun Obasanjo the first time he heard it, was a private-sector entity providing funds for such critical economic sectors as energy, agriculture, telecommunications and tourism, but particularly transport infrastructure. It would also provide an assortment of banking services.

In April 2007, following approval by President Obasanjo and the work of a technical committee of 12 set up in January 2006 to actualize the dream, Soludo embarked on a tour to sell the concept to Africa and the world. Among his stops: London, New York, Egypt, Gambia, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Algeria and Tunisia.

The AFC was not a hard sell; it is difficult to conceive of any African to whom it was not a significant, powerful, idea. But our problem has never been the availability of good ideas, and the magic of the AFC seemed to have ended in those plush hotels. Implementation was next, on the card, and Soludo was completely unprepared.

The just-published report of the Presidential Committee to Investigate the Activities of the AFC reads like a Mafioso diary, not the record of a high-minded enterprise dedicated to the dream of helping African find development. As a result, not only is Soludo’s reputation now chin-deep in the sewers, the AFC may have died a premature and ignominious death.

What happened? Perhaps our old nemesis: self-interest and fuzzy thinking. How else do we interpret the conduct of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as Soludo led it in the AFC quest? The CBN seemed to have scant appreciation of the law as it hurried to ferry funds into the AFC, knowing that only Nigeria had signed the Agreement. That put it on the same level as Transcorp, a Nigerian company, but without Transcorp’s corporate legality. The AFC was not incorporated either as a domestic or international institution, and nobody, company or government outside Nigeria has placed a kobo in it.

Still, on 22 November 2007, Soludo’s CBN casually and illegally tossed in $462.9 million in easy money, like a casino hustler playing with house money, and another $288million from other Nigerian shareholders.

And then, the game got really interesting, as the AFC’s funds moved from being a casino activity to kalokalo or one-armed bandit involving such Nigerian banks as Ecobank, UBA, First City Merchant Bank, Oceanic Bank, Stanbic Bank, and Access Bank.

Consider, for instance, that five days after AFC illegally opened for business, the UBA New York branch opened with $250 million. Only two weeks later, those same funds began to be repatriated to Nigeria in various seedy ways. Five months later—abracadabra!—less than $19,000 was left in the AFC account.

Some of this information may not be strange to Nigerians who are paying attention. They would recall that on April 28 this year, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the United States imposed an uncontested $15 million against UBA New York for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

That action followed two Cease and Desist Orders on the bank in January 2007 and February 2008, citing its failure to implement the law and report money laundering or other suspicious activity involving approximately $197 million in suspicious transactions.”

In other words, UBA was dubious and unprofessional. But that is exactly where our AFC funds were lodged, and we may not have known had the US authorities been playing the same game. And the funds placed in the UBA account, having been manoeuvred back to Nigeria, began to turn a “profit”. Prof. Soludo told the committee the profit on the CBN investment in the AFC stands at about $11.3 million.

Soludo seems to have taken to heart, the ad hoc approach of the man who appointed him to heart: without reference to the CBN or AFC Boards, he unilaterally authorized the transfer of a total of $300 million to UBA New York, and $593.2 to Citibank London.

Perhaps the absent-minded Professor was in such a hurry to save Africa he forgot the law, due process and transparency. Now, he has to explain how he could so casually dispense with the rules not once or twice, but from the formation stage of the AFC through its funding, operation and management. That would include his chairmanship of the Board in his personal capacity, contrary to the law.

Most of all, he and the management of the AFC have a lot to explain concerning the movement of the funds in their control. Apparently, there are serious legal and ethical issues of abuse of office, gross negligence, round tripping (which is some kind of “money-doubling”), and money-laundering.

The case of Austine Ometoruwa, the AFC Chief Executive Officer is doubly sad because it is difficult to extricate Soludo from the serious charges against him. Ometoruwa had a historic opportunity in his hands, but seemed to have chosen to put it in a chokehold and stuff it into his pockets.

And Nigerian banks! Sometimes, some of them are cited in the media for their “achievements”. Our newspapers and magazines that maintain an incestuous relationship with these institutions install a “Banker of the Year.”

And then came game day and exposed themselves, treating the AFC like their private ATMs). The Report says they “colluded with the AFC Management to mis-apply AFC funds as a source of cheap trading money rather than being deployed to the critical developmental objectives for which the AFC was established.”

Collusion is a very strong term, and the Report rightly recommends they be sanctioned or prosecuted. I expect them to deploy their slush funds to try to buy justice, of course, but the point has been made. They may be banks, but they are not professionals. They are overpriced petty-traders. And criminals.

Will the AFC rise from these ruins? I do not see how, yet it is an idea whose time has come. But then, so was electricity in Nigeria, and Transcorp, and roads.

Yes, we did reform the banking sector, but who will reform the bankers?

sonala.olumhense@gmail.com

We haven't heard the last of this story.

There is no point providing articles written by folks who just have a little more time than we do, we can as well choose to author some of those articles rather than posting on Nairaland. So to refer to some of these articles as if they are written by some world aclaim authorities is just a bad choice of referencing.

Some simple questions will solve all this problem.

Who is the current chairman of AFC now that Soludo is no longer the CBN Governor?

If the current chairman is the current CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido, why then are we having this debate?

@  Afam.

Info about AFC from their website   www.africafc.org


Established in 2007, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) is a private sector-led investment bank and development finance institution created to help mobilize and channel required capital towards driving Africa’s economic development.

AFC’s mission is to address Africa’s development needs in a profitable way, creating benefits for both investors and societies in the region.

There is an estimated $130 billion of investment opportunities across Africa over the next five years through which AFC can help drive Africa’s economic development.

AFC has a number of advantages which allow it to participate in this scenario. These include a large (US$1 billion) capital base to support early and intermediate stage projects; access to cheap long-term funds through an anticipated investment grade rating; and deep sector knowledge from industry experts. In addition, as a hybrid investment bank and international development finance institution, AFC enjoys privileged access to policy makers in Africa. AFC uses these advantages to help address one of the biggest impediments to the successful implementation of many projects on the continent; namely the lack of anchor risk-capital combined with well packaged investment structures. When done, this attracts complimentary sources of finance, both public and private to create truly bankable projects out of what are currently just potential projects.

AFC has developed key guiding corporate governance principles benchmarked against global investment banking institutions and has a tight and well controlled cost base. It has a lean organisational structure designed along product, industry and advisory business units and functions.

AFC’s business development process is founded upon a system of proactively creating, acquiring and managing infrastructural, industrial and financial assets. The AFC’s business execution focuses on providing anchor risk capital, playing a catalytic role, providing advisory services and forging partnerships.
AFC has recruited world class capabilities by offering globally competitive market and incentive-based compensation. AFC has succeeded in attracting professionals and top management drawn from the private sector, investment banks and multilateral development finance institutions.

The AFC has been built around four core pillars:

- Fostering private sector solutions to Africa’s development
- Driving Africa’s competitiveness and industrialization
- Catalyzing private sector participation in Africa’s infrastructure
- Facilitating Africa’s private sector access to capital markets

DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | SITE MAP | CONTACT
3a Osborne Road | Ikoyi | Lagos | Nigeria

Copyright © 2007 AFC - Africa Finance Corporation | All Rights Reserved

According to AFC website, Soludo is still the Chairman of the Board. But it is possible that info hasn't been updated for a while.

When we were formed

Established in 2007, the African Finance Corporation (AFC) is a private sector-led investment bank and development finance institution created to help mobilize and channel required capital towards driving Africa’s economic development.




The AFC has a 21-member board with a majority from the private sector. In line with global best practices and corporate governance, twenty percent are independent directors and the additional six available board seats are reserved for share holders from other African countries.

Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board:
Professor Chukwuma C. Soludo, CFR
Governor
Central Bank of Nigeria

Director:
Mr. Andrew Alli
Chief Executive Officer
Africa Finance Corporation

The quote above is from the website at http://www.africafc.org/

I placed a call to the company and asked the person at the end of the line that I needed to confirm some information, he asked for my name and where I was calling from and I gave him the information, obviously he was communicating with someone else who I believe asked him to confirm the information I wanted and I told him I needed to confirm the current chairman of the board.

After a while he told me that the receptionist was not on seat and that I should call back on Monday by 10.00am.

For me, the article referenced above was written last year and as at that time Soludo was still the CBN governor so the most logical question to find a good answer to right now is - Who is the current chairman of the board?

Afam,

Didn't you find it curious that you did not get a straight answer to a very innocent question you asked .
It surely cannot be a secret as to whom the Chairman of their company is. Just a thought .

you all are wasting your time
professor Saludo is a criminal and a typical Nigeria

kuramo:

Afam,

Didn't you find it curious that you did not get a straight answer to a very innocent question you asked .
It surely cannot be a secret as to whom the Chairman of their company is. Just a thought .

Curious ke? I was disappointed and embarrassed at the same time.

This is just the height of corruption because as public office holder someone like soludo should not be involved in private business and also getting paid from it, because at the end of the day it all boils down to conflict of interest and with him being the cbn governor then his influence is very much likely to make any bank bow down to his request. and a further look at it will also see that most of the sacked bank CEos are also on the list as directors which is professionally and ethically wrong.

look at the case on the uk banking sector and scandals about expenses probe recently many of the affected people didnt have to wait to be sacked they resigned their position, and you wont hear of any issue of conflict of interest. in the banks in the uk even to work as an admin staff you have to pass a credit check just to make sure you dont have any debts because if you do, working in a bank might put customers money at risk or you might be invlolved in fraudlent activities to service your debts.  so basically all that happened inn the nigerian banking secoter today is not just a matter of mismanagemnt its also a matter of not following rules and regulations governing the banking industry and also coupled with the fact that those involved had personal interest in other business ventures which made it easy to get loans without proper collateral or documentation.

in the uk they have various banking regulatory bodies. OFT, FSA, Trading standard. all these bodies are responsible for checks and balances in the banking industry.

I laughed when i read about the Efcc asking these people to pay back the money in 1week, it is just not possible and all the shout is just propanganda so that nigerians can see that they arwe doing sumting which we know it will be forgotten soon,just as nothing is being heard of Halliburton again. after plenty shout and media  advertisement. recovering the loans will take time, it might not even be possible to recover all, because these guys involved are the big shots, who can manipulate the law, as well as influence decisions of the court coupled with a very corrupt and useless AGF.

so my fellow nigerians all we can do is sit, wait and watch and let the drama unfolds and see what will happen from here.

were is soludo himself ? were is dangote ? were are the beneficiaries of this loan. proper check will reveal that they are either, having lunch in aso rock, or chilling in the uk just as erastus akingbola of intercontinental bank is doing.  give it a few months and nothing will be heard of this issue again.

God bless nigeria.

It was never secret that Soludo was the board chairman of AFC before the so called probe.

The type of stories we are hearing these days get as dem be! Pls can we borrow jerry rawlings for some months?

axeman85:

were is soludo himself ? were is dangote ? were are the beneficiaries of this loan. proper check will reveal that they are either, having lunch in aso rock, or chilling in the uk just as erastus akingbola of intercontinental bank is doing. give it a few months and nothing will be heard of this issue again.

True Talk

What kind of country is this??
We are all criminals, Even if all the stadia in country
was used a prison for corrupt nigerians, there would be no one left to lock us in shakes head and walks away, thinking of how to run away from this damn country

NA true

Soludo ought to be investigated for aiding and abbetting corruption.

MAY BE THIS COUNTRY IS CURSED

The problem is that poverty has made us all potential criminals the only nigerians with integrity are the poor ones and thats probably because they dont have the chance

aaidel:

The problem is that poverty has made us all potential criminals the only nigerians with integrity are the poor ones and thats probably because they dont have the chance

I agree that poverty has affected Nigerians but we still have people with integrity even when faced with mouth watering opportunities in this country. It is a matter of choice.

AFC was set up to compete with ADB(Africa Dev bank),after nigeria was 'played out' of the MD position in ADB ^{despite being a majority shareholder} by other African countries with the active support of the US.

It showed the ineffectiveness of OBJ leadership in Africa,as most of the countries we've assisted in the past (Liberia,Sierra Leone ,ZA) worked against us.

So,Soludo & OBJ conceived this idea,with Nigeria being the lead country to form a finance org to support to African countries,Yar'Adull however didn't like the idea when he came in & pulledd out,. So the facts shuld be presented properly. . . . . 

This is  conflict of interest. Soludo should never have been the Chairman of an investment bank and Governor of CBN at the same time.

Naa waa, oooooooo this news is very appalling and it saddens ones heart that those ppl who posed to be very correct up there could be very corrupt in the inside. Proff for that matter who seems to be a saviour to our banking sector thru the recapitalisation era, but turn out to be involve in this saga, well I think it can actually happen to anybody in this our deep-eaten corrupted nation, it seems we could all be THIEVES if we all get there. PLS LETS CHECK OUR SELVES TOO.

are nigeria jail so full to accomdate this thieves?

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

solodu i think has a case to answer
[size=21pt]
igbo or not[/size]

The writer of that article gave us the side of the story that he wants us to see and understand the way he wants.That's his job twist or tell the truth depending on what thier intentions are.That Soludo is a chairman of the bank is not a secret,so was shamsudeen Usman and some other top CBN echelon,the government of OBJ was fully aware of the ppl that constituted board.Besides,what do U expect?That the CBN will invest $460mill dollars and the person behind the idea will take the back sit?Of course sb in his capacity as CBN governor is the only one that has the requisite clout to tell none Nigerians to join.The writer is just splitting hairs,we know the intentiön of the article is to discredit him,whether the money was lodged in the UK branch of US or Citibank in UK is a matter of business interest which in the first place is what AFC is all about.Whether UBA broke the banking laws of the US as a result of the huge sum deposited has nothing to do with soludo,Elumelu should worry about that.He was the chairman of AFC based on the fact that he was CBN governor and the investment was on behalf of CBN,it's not his.Nobody has indicted him even after the probe committee report.So abeg make Una relax!

I think before we worry too  much about arresting Soludo we can start by asking Tunde Lemo to resign because he doubled as CBN Dep Gov and Dep Gov of AFC. And continues to be the Dep Governor of CBN.

I also expect Soludo to be charrged to court if Sanusi honestly believe Soludo stole money.

But to create news just to rubish other people's hard earned record is very lazy and shameful.

Shamsudeen Usman tried it he failed, Aliyu Modibbo tried it he failed, Waziri did it she has not gotten far with it. If this is all Sanusi is interested in then I am sorry for the man and this country.

My prayer is Soludo should continue to ignore these fools and not glorify this silliness with a public response. TIME WILL TELL.