₦airaland Forum

The National Obstetric Fistula Centre (NOFIC) in Ebonyi has said that early girl child marriage and exposure to sexual intercourse before age 16, is a predisposing factor to cervical cancer.

The Medical Director of NOFIC, Prof. Johnson Obuna, made the remark on Friday, during the flag-off of a Free Cervical Cancer Screening and Treatment for women in the state.

The exercise was organised by the state government through the state Executive Committee on Medical Screening in collaboration with the office of the governor’s wife, Mrs Rachael Umahi.

Obuna said that giving out a girl child to marriage before 16 years of age made them prone to cancer.

The medical expert said that multiple sexual partners also exposed women to health condition.

He advocated for the inclusion of sex education in primary and secondary schools curriculum to reduce the risk factors.

The medical director said that the condition could be detected, prevented and stopped if reported at its early stage.

According to him, cervical cancer could also be treated if identified at the early stage unlike the ovarian cancer.

“Apart from early screening, another preventable measure is by not allowing our girl child to marry early.

“Early marriage and exposure to sexual intercourse before age 16 is a predisposing factor for cervical cancer,” he said.

Obuna commended Gov. David Umahi for his commitment to the health status of people in the state.

Mrs Umahi, represented by her Special Assistant on Welfare, Mrs Patience Offor, said an estimate of over 100, 000 new cases of cervical cancer was recorded every year in the country.

She pleaded with relevant bodies in the field of Oncology to offer effective services, and free outreaches to rural dwellers.

Umahi said that her pet project, ‘Family Succor and Upliftment Foundation’ had been in partnership with Joyce Jones Foundation on free cervical cancer screening and treatment.

The governor’s wife called on women and girls to avail themselves of the opportunity of free cervical cancer screening and treatment.

She urged local government chairpersons, coordinators of development centres and other stakeholders to mobilize women and bring them for the programme to achieve maximum result.

The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Eze Nwachukwu, said that the body was saddled with the responsibility of sensitisation and mobilisation of people to benefit from the gesture which was free.

Nwachukwu said that the exercise would be replicated at the local government levels.

He thanked the governor for the first phase of the free screening of Hepatitis B and C, stating that vaccination of those screened would commence on June 7.

Nwachukwu called on women of the state to take advantage of the exercise.

First Bank has for the longest time been the most trusted and recognizable name in the Nigerian banking landscape. This was borne out of the fact that it was the first bank to be established in Nigeria initially called British Bank of West Africa (BBWA) under royal charter.

As the oldest bank in the country for over 120 years, it had certain advantages many other banks do not have. Some of those include a loyal customer base and deep networks across both the public and private sectors. Just to prove the strength of the bank’s connections, since the return of democracy in 1999, 2 of the 4 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governors have been former Managing Directors of the bank. Other directors have ended up being appointed either Ministers or other significant political appointments.

The case of the last week with the ouster of the MD, Dr. Sola Adeduntan by the Oba Otudeko-led board is akin to what might be termed a coup as it was not sanctioned by the regulator. The CBN performed its duty by rightly rescinding the action of appointing the Deputy MD, Mr Gbenga Shobo and sacking the entire Board at both the Holdings and Bank level. The action by the Otudeko board was in breach of laid down procedures where to appoint or sack a bank director, it must be approved by the CBN. It is common knowledge that even from the Assistant General Manager level in the banking industry requires CBN approval, so this case of appointments is highly unusual.

The question many have asked is how did First Bank get here? And it just takes going back barely two decades. In 2001, the former MD, Mr Bernard Longe alongside the Board approved a loan of $112m to Investors International of London (IILL) to purchase a GSM licence. The bid went South, IILL was unable to perform on its loans and Bernard Longe was to be made out as a scapegoat by the Board and was sacked. He took the bank to court, won and received a compensation.

The drama of Otudeko owing the bank and allegedly abusing his position is no different. It stems from the heady days of Mr Bisi Onasanya who oversaw the expansion of a Non Performing Loan (NPL) book like never seen in the history of the Nigerian banking industry. According to some estimates, the total NPLs under his watch is about 1.3 trillion naira. Many of the loans were originated deliberately to go bad with some members of the Board benefiting directly. Otudeko was one of those with a loan portfolio of what is estimated to be 75 billion naira. The collateral behind these loans are said to be Honeywell shares and Airtel shares owned by Otudeko. However, despite regulatory forbearance, Otudeko refused to pay up on these loans despite being the Chairman of the bank. The culture of bad loan writing seems embedded in the DNA of the bank.




It is very worrisome that board members who are also majority shareholders and should be acting in the best interests of minority shareholders only view the bank as an avenue to funnel resources to their other businesses without paying up. There are those who say the bank is a political party masquerading as a bank divided along factions swaying to what faction of the party is in power. There are suggestions that Mike Adenuga (another major shareholder) is the backer of the current MD, Dr. Sola Adeduntan and has rebuffed attempts by Otudeko to avoid meeting his loan obligations.

But what is even most curious is the blatant disregard that Otudeko seemingly has for the CBN Governor. In his speech announcing the re-appointment of Dr. Sola Adeduntan, Godwin Emefiele said, “I spoke to Mr. Oba Otudeko , he refused to grant my entreaties. I had to call two of his major shareholders to call him to ask the board not to take such decisions without the approval of the CBN. He refused to pick the calls of these shareholders — who are also owners of the bank. I feel we have done our best and we would not allow a shareholder who cannot subject himself to regulatory control and authority to remain as the director of a bank.”

While we must commend the boldness of the CBN to take this step now, we must also ask why it took this long to sack Otudeko as Chairman of the bank. In a bank that has been a recipient of liquidity support and regulatory forbearance, directors cannot operate as they choose. Had Otudeko not gone ahead with his coup, would he still be Chairman? How many more banks are their Non Perfoming Loans understated? How fragile is the entire banking system? These are the questions that demand answers and go beyond just the curious case of Otudeko and First Bank of Nigeria.

GTBank released its Q1 2021 numbers earlier this week showing a 9% decline in Profit After Tax.

This decline is a result of the lower yield environment where yields on government securities trended to single digits in the final quarter of 2020 and first quarter of 2021.

For GTBank, its interest income declined from 75 billion naira to 55 billion naira due to reduced trading income on its investment securities. This is an unexpected dip in securities trading for the bank.

While other Tier 1 banks such as UBA suffered a decline of 12% in investment securities income, GTBank’s decline more than doubled at 27% (17 billion naira). This is quite a worrying trend and with a challenged economy, it’s time to re-evaluate GTBank as an investment proposition.

The bank operates a curious model in the industry where the Executive Director for Wholesale Banking also acts as the Treasurer. These are typically two distinct roles with the Treasurer reporting into the Executive Director, but it appears GTBank management is unwilling to either pay market rates for a Treasurer or release the reigns from the long-time Treasurer who is also the Executive Director. It begs the question as to whether not being fully focused on the Treasury function might be driving this sub-optimal performance.

The bank continues to rein in its costs and best-in-class in Cost-Income Ratio (CIR) metrics. However, without generating growth in its treasury activities, it might be in the early days of losing its pride of place amongst Tier 1 banks.

With the CEO, Segun Agbaje transiting from his position as bank CEO to HoldCo CEO in July 2021, it is hoped that he hands over a Treasury function that is capable of delivering robust returns GTBank has been known for.

At today’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the MPC communicated its decision to keep all monetary parameters unchanged from its previous meeting.

It appears to be a tacit admission by the monetary authorities that the CBN is at its wits end and out of monetary tools to stimulate an economy which is in its second recession in 4 years, an abysmal record for the country.

In every country, monetary authorities alone are not to be held responsible for economic outcomes as there is a fiscal side to every economic equation. However, the willingness to dabble in alternate facts by the CBN lately has succeeded in eroding trust in what was otherwise one of the remaining few respected Nigerian institutions.

Nothing reflects that more succinctly than today’s mandatory post-MPC press conference where the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele mentioned that analysts who should know better are quoting 480 naira to the US dollar as the exchange rate compared to the CBN rate of 379 naira to the US dollar. The Governor went further to state that the parallel market is a shallow market and accounts for no more than 5% of the total FX demand. While the Governor might state that the parallel market consists of retail itinerant FX hawkers, the reality reflects that Bureau De Change (BDCs) have become the parallel market.

It is interesting the Governor will make such an assertion as the facts from the CBN which he heads confirms that through all of 2019, disbursements to BDCs amounted to $12.65 billion compared to $5.55 billion for the legally recognized Importers and Exporters (I&E) window.

These statistics makes it clear that more than double the amount of dollar sales by the CBN were to this parallel market and accounts for 37% of the $34.32 billion the CBN sold last year. It is clear that the CBN is challenged with meeting FX obligations as there are loud claims that there is a backlog of FX demand hovering around $2 billion (exclusive of swaps and foreign portfolio investments). The CBN is using the same playbook from 2016/2017 of denying a reality of the markets, which it will be forced to accept no matter how long it takes.

With yields low, FPIs wary amidst low oil prices and more importantly, production caps by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Nigeria, Nigeria’s FX liquidity will remain challenged and a devaluation will be inadequate to solve FX shortages. The earlier Governor Emefiele embraces the new normal of the Naira’s realities and stop living in a parallel universe, the quicker the economy might be able to begin to stutter back to life.