The Nigerian Compass writes

Crisis in the nation’s banking sector may become messier in the next few weeks. Shareholders of the troubled banks are already strategising to stop an alleged move by the managers appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to sell them.


Since the CBN removed the managements of Intercontinental, Afribank, Finbank, Oceanic, Union, BankPHB and Spring on August 14 and October 2 respectively and appointed new ones, the apex bank has been giving conflicting signals about its real intention, either to sell them or let them be as going concerns.

But the shareholders’ groups said they had uncovered moves by the new managements, in collaboration with the CBN appointed advisers, to sell the banks in the next few weeks.

The advisers include Deutsche Bank, Chapel Hill Denham, Stanbic IBTC, Olaniwun Ajayi LP, Kola Awodein & Co, KPMG Professional Services and Akintola Delliotte.

Sources said the shareholders’ groups had completed arrangements to sue the apex bank, the current chief executives of the seven banks and the appointed advisers over minority interests.

In fact, the shareholders of Afribank were reported to have dragged the new management and the CBN to court over a plan to sell the bank to a foreign investor.

Speaking on the issue, the Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (PSAN), Mr. Boniface Okezie, said the decision to go to court was the last option to reinforce their beliefs that the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s banking reform were not only ill-motivated, but “acting a script yet to be understood by Nigerians and stakeholders in the industry.”

He said that from the outset, they knew that Sanusi was acting a script that was increasingly becoming difficult for him to execute, adding that all his actions since he sacked the bank chiefs had not proved otherwise.

He insisted that the shareholders would resist any plan to auction the banks to local or foreign investors without any consideration for the minority shareholders, adding: “We have always known that the CEOs and advisers appointed by the CBN are out to sell the banks.

“The truth is that everything, especially the interest of minority shareholders, must be taken into considerations.

“They just want the board to rubber stamp the arrangement. We will not allow that.”

Truth is better than silver or gold, we'll see.