₦airaland Forum

silly THISDAY are part of the problem.
they were the ones dashing these crooks banker of the year and most innovative bank of the year.
now you are bashing them.

The Chickens Come Home to Roost
By Shaka Momodu, 08.15.2009
THISDAY

Have you heard? A tidal wave just hit the banking sector. At the stroke of the pen, the career trajectory of top management executives of five banks took a southward curve.
Mr Okey Nwosu, Managing Director of Finbank; Bartholomew Ebong, Managing Director, Union Bank; Sebastian Adigwe, Manging Director of Afribank; Mrs Cecelia Ibru, Managing Director, Oceanic Bank; and Erastus Akingbola, Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank have been tragically enlisted in the hall of bad bank managers.
Between Akingbola and Nwosu it is difficult to judge who won the publicity-loving CEO campaign. Akingbola probably made a very public show of what has turned out to be his last outing as the managing director of Intercontinental Bank through his courtesy visit to the Sultan of Sokoto within the week.
If he was in showbiz, his appetite for publicity would have been easily understood but he was in the banking, sector a very conservative sector. It is unclear what all the craze for publicity did to the bottom line of his bank.
The picture of him with the Sultan adorned the front pages of most newspapers on Wednesday. Well, it was his last as managing director of his gasping bank.
It is either he did not see the handwriting on the wall or chose to ignore it and perhaps, even pretend that all was well. His career and others like him came to a screeching halt on Friday.
He will be leaving behind about N300 billion in negative shareholders’ fund, a large chunk of which was given to oil companies to finance importation of petroleum products and construction of depots. Unfortunately, the bulk of these loans have remained unpaid and unserviced and perhaps lost forever.
The soft spoken Amazon of banking Mrs Madam Cecilia Ibru also led her bank to a negative shareholders’ fund of about N400 billion, most of which also went into financing of construction of depots, jetties and product imports.
But interestingly, about 30 percent of her bank’s loan portfolio may have gone to her family’s business interests in aviation, hotels and publishing, among other concerns run by the Ibru family.
While Akingbola is said to owe his bank billions of naira, Oceanic Bank and Intercontinental, it will be recalled, also contributed N1 billion each to Yar’Adua’s election campaign.
Between the five banks whose CEOs got fired - Intercontinental Bank , Oceanic Bank, Afribank, Finbank and Union Bank – it is estimated that they lost N900 billion of shareholders fund.
Soon after consolidation, banks began a very aggressive campaign on which bank is bigger? It was fought with all vigour and rigour. So began the campaign, “My Bank is Bigger than Yours”. All sorts of statistics were bandied around by many of the banks to claim superiority over others.
From my bank is bigger than yours, the campaign steadily moved to the downstream oil sector, with the slogan, “My Depot is Bigger than Yours”. The competition here was no less fierce. Every available space on the Apapa axis was turned into the construction of tank farms.
The runaway oil price fed a frenzy for big returns, and for a while that hope seem well placed. Accordingly, the oil nouveau riche lived the life of opulence and grandeur - private jets and exotic cars easily became their play toys while mansions of varied architecture dotted the neighborhood skyline. All were built with depositors’ money and flaunted menacingly at their faces.
But suddenly, the bubble burst. Oil price crashed, and trouble started. To further compound this, the naira was dramatically devalued. Debt in billions of naira piled up. And soon the banks came knocking.
However, the new Pharoah at the CBN who did not know Joseph and would take no prisoners sat in judgement. A price must be paid and nothing but the careers of those who breached public trust and abused their position was good enough.
Buoyed by the tremendous successes they recorded in the various public offers they embarked on, banks lost risk management control and became reckless with investors’ and depositors’ money. According to an insider, the banks enticed many of the oil chiefs into buying their banks’ shares by giving them fat loans without collaterals during the stock market boom.
When the market crashed, and values of shares plummeted, a gapping hole was dug in the books. The hole grew deeper and wider when oil prices also crashed and the naira shed weight, losing 20 per cent of its value.
Suddenly the competition for my depot is bigger than yours tragically turned to my debt is bigger than yours. Who knows where it will go from here?

TEE ZERO:
Let me also advise all debtors of Nigerian banks, that the CBN and all government agencies are united in our commitment to support the recovery efforts of the banks. Debtors who do not pay shall have their names published in National Newspapers in due course and we will solicit the support of law enforcement agencies in recovery.
SANUSI SAID THAT, JUST IN CASE WE ARE WONDERING WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DEBTORS

which one is due course? the loans are overdue and are not being serviced.
let them send a plan of action on payment to CBN and pay 15% of it by the ned of next week or else face the law.
borrower and the lender are equally culpable in this matter.

netotse:
honestly i'm in the same camp as you o. . .i've heard her speak once and i liked part of her yarns(it wasnt on banking tho). . .i used to think she was straightforward o. . .well i've learned something from this whole episode sha. . .dont judge until you have all the facts!

i have heard her speak on banking several times and i shook my head in wonder on each occasion.
very simplisitc, roadside comments i did not expect from a top banker.no critical analysis of the issues at stake.

on what basis are you surprised?
om the basis of the plenty adverts or cooked books they cook in thr name of balance sheets or what exactly?
as far as i am concerned that woman has no business practicing banking, talk less of being a CEO?
but i am not surprised since banking is not practiced in Nigeria.
I have heard her speak severally and i wonder if being a bank MD is a political appointment?
the bar was set too low in my opinion for the sake of depositor confidence, else lots of these hustlers masquerading as bankers should have been shoved out,these are just the worst of a bad bunch.[quote author=tpiah* link=topic=309802.msg4357201#msg4357201 date=1250355240]I didnt read all 12 pages, true.

Just the first one.

I was surprised to find Cecilia Ibru on the list.





Aiyekooto

your name means parrot, right?  [/quote]

all these crooks and criminals masquerading as militants not worse or better than those in power.

who is the CEO of Barclays bank?
Who is the CEO of HSBC?
WHO IS THE CEO of ABSA bank?
who is the CEO of ANZ bank?

This banks profits are probably more than the budget of Nigeria yet we dont have to be intimidated with their pictures and those of their cronies on the pages of newspapers.Banking is a conservative profession and when traders take over there is bound to be chaos. Honest businessmen cannot borrow 10m Naira from the banks but they have lent billions to their friends and family without due diligence. There is no need for tribalism if we are to sanitize and clean up Nigeria. we must use this opportunity to end the era of voodoo banking in Nigeria.

akintun:
The Punch Editor Steve Ayorinde was paid 2 million to support the Yar'Adua campaign and he still had the nerve to write this.

http://www.punchng.com/Article-print2.aspx?theartic=Art200903263223015

He must be feeling foolish.

I have documents and will address him soon.

Enough of the gloating.

I hope you are clean because i feel it will be morally wrong for you to go around attacking everyone if you have skeleton in your cupboard.

if we wait for someone without skeletons, e go tey.
i only hope his skeleton is of no consequence in the scheme of things.
one thing is sure, in the landscape called Nigeria, i trust no man.

hollandis:
Please can you kindly paste the article or excerpts of the article when posting.I hate opening Nigeria newspapers sites,they disgust me.

you are a funny guy

[quote author=IGWE_USA link=topic=310080.msg4355920#msg4355920 date=1250335418]The fact remains that Sanusi had executed a bad corporate coup d'etat which is a bad omen for the Nigerian economy, especially in this period
  of global economic recession.

   Even at the early stage of the recession when Fredie mac, fannie mae, JP morgan and AIG were in financial kaput, Ben Bernanke and Henry
   Paulson quietly injected billions of dollars into these banks so as to prevent a total collapse of the American economy.Despite all the bail outs,
   how many of the Amercan bank and automobile CEOs were SACKED? To the best of my knowledge, Jim Wagner of general motors honourably
   resigned so as to pave a way for his company to recieve the bail out money, he wasn't SACKED!!
   
   But on a second thought, it's only in Nigeria where this kamikaze attitude towards sensitive national issues exist.[/quote]Prof. Aluko is almost senile, so i doubt his opinion.
prof Herbert Orji are you joking? the same guy that ruined progress bank.
abeg free me joo

Ibime:
Guy, stop making a fool of yourself. . . . Sir Fred the Shred as well as many others have been sacked by Mervyn King and Gordon Brown. . . . not to mention Obama sacking the CEO of general motors. . . . once again, I gbadun Sanusi for this move!

Ibime, my man, we are together on this.
every voodoo banker must be chased out of town;Atuche and Elumelu watch your backs Sanusization is on the way.
Ibime, how far? Soboma don accept amnesty o.
gow you see the amnesty drama?
pls don't derail this thread.

DayoCoker:
The Punch Editor Steve Ayorinde was paid 2 million to support the Yar'Adua campaign and he still had the nerve to write this.

http://www.punchng.com/Article-print2.aspx?theartic=Art200903263223015

He must be feeling foolish.

I have documents and will address him soon.

Enough of the gloating.

address all the addressables.

for those too lazy to open sahara

Intercontinental Bank Plc has been sacked. This should not come as a surprise to readers of my blog. Five months ago, I pointed out Intercontinental Bank's precarious state in a series of articles questioning the competence of its chief executive, Dr Erastus Akingbola. In these articles, I asked the bank to disclose its true financial state in the spirit of full disclosure.
After the publication of these articles, I was inundated with questions from journalists, executives and members of the public. While some of them denounced me as an agent of an imaginary northern cabal that was intent on taking over the banking sector by creating an unstable atmosphere, a majority of readers thanked me for the expose and encouraged me to continue with my investigations. I continued with my investigations and my persistence paid off when the European Investment Bank exposed some of Intercontinental Bank's bogus claims. I released my findings to the mainstream media who curiously decided not to further pursue the matter although their pages were suddenly filled with advertisements from the financial institution.

Rather than address the issues raised by several notable pundits including the respected eggheads at Proshare, Dr Akingbola proceeded to the tabloid press where he gave interviews to City People and other magazines. He also launched a smear campaign against Sanusi Aminu Lamido Sanusi, then the chief executive officer of First Bank. This wide reaching campaign claimed that Mr Sanusi was "de-marketing" Intercontinental Bank in order to increase his chances of being made the governor of the Central Bank.


In addition, the bank purportedly showed its books to Renaissance Capital whose resident analyst Kato Mukuru affirmed that it was strong enough to manage its risk. Renaissance Capital was wrong. Its PR supremo Matthew Pearson has already started a damage control exercise by trying to limit the damage wrought by his firm’s irresponsible analysts. But then Renaissance Capital is a dubious research firm backed by Russian oligarch money. Its chief executive, Stephen Jennings sees Africa as the next big thing and is happy to continue praising Nigerian banks as long as they steer their securities business to his other firms. This scenario has repeated itself time and time again in developed economies where analysts touted stocks backed by their employers in order to get profitable deals. That report should have been thrown into the trash but the gullible Nigerian press swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

Recent Developments

On Wednesday, August 12, 2009, Intercontinental Bank commissioned an advertisement in The Guardian where it appealed to the President and released an abridged version of a list of purported debtors. The list which was released by A.O.S Practice, its loan recovery agents, included three popular petroleum marketing firms Rahamaniyya, Capital Oil and Tanzila Petroleum. Their respective promoters, Alhaji Abdulrahaman Bashir, Patrick Ubah and Alhaji Shehu Badamasi were also named. To put it mildly, the advertisement was ill advised and stupid. A few bankers who agreed to speak to me yesterday unanimously agreed that Intercontinental Bank was trying to undermine the CBN and prepare the public for a huge bad loan provision in its financial statements.

Intercontinental bank issued a denial on Friday, August 14, 2009. This is a matter for the NBA. One of the parties must be lying. If the bank did not authorize the publication, then the lawyer, Chief Ajibola Aribisala must be disbarred for acting contrary to his client's instructions. But since Intercontinental Bank still retains the firm as its loan recovery agent, it is obvious that the two firms were acting in concert. The first statement of the advertorial reads: "We are the Solicitors to Intercontinental Bank Plc., hereinafter referred to as "Our Client" in respect and on behalf of whom we have instructions to write to your esteemed office." In my opinion, there is no ambiguity in this sentence.

The advertisement then goes on to classify the Nigerian banking sector into two groups; those devoted to the growth of Nigerian industry and those acting on behalf of foreign-based institutions. In his inimitable Yoruba-influenced English, Aribisala then goes on to say that Intercontinental Bank belongs to the former group. According to him, "By using its broad financial base, our client as with other banks of its ilk, have patriotically oiled the wheels of wholly Nigerian owned manufacturing entities, production companies and investments corporations with the allocation of the needed finance to such businesses and companies ostensibly driven by persons perceived to be (sic) immense integrity."

He argues that it is wrong to classify Intercontinental Bank as risk-prone while other less patriotic banks are being recognized for their financial prudence. Aribisala ends this rambling preamble by suggesting that there is a cabal of influential people who are bent on destroying the banking sector by defaulting on huge credit facilities.


However the most curious part of the advertisement is the complaint which Intercontinental Bank presents to the president. It says that it does not have a "preponderance of bad loans" on its books but has been held hostage by an influential cabal whose members have saddled with non-performing loans. What is the meaning of this dumb statement? Mr Aribisala who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria then shockingly condemns the Nigerian legal system which has made him wealthy enough to acquire the Protea Hotel Kuramo Waters, Victoria Island.

The lawyer then asks the government to amend the legislation covering financial crimes in order to strengthen the system. If he is really serious about such reforms, then Erastus Akingbola should end up in jail for his role in plundering shareholder funds. The timing of this letter is highly suspicious. For instance, the Tanzila Petroleum case was reported well before Sanusi became the CBN Governor. Why didn't Intercontinental Bank write to the president then? Why start this media campaign now?

Opinion and Analysis

Intercontinental Bank is an institution built on quicksand. Its top executives have never felt the need to instill a culture of ethics and good corporate governance. Buoyed by soaring oil prices and a bubble stock market, they invested heavily in high risk sectors such as downstream oil marketing and margin trading. Now that the house of cards has collapsed, Intercontinental Bank is trying to shift the blame to businessmen and a convoluted legal system. Alhaji Shehu Badamasi's case is a good example. The oil and gas man used 600,000 shares of a small insurance company to borrow 17 billion naira from the bank and then used the money to buy luxury houses. What sort of bankers would sign off on such a glaring case of diversion?


Dr Akingbola is the Madoff of Nigerian banking, a crook who brazenly diverted funds to his wife’s companies while emasculating all his top management executives. He hides behind the cloak of religiosity using his “Christian” carapace to fool members of the public. He has decimated an institution by refusing to hire competent managers and allowing parochial ethnic and religious considerations to influence key judgements. Even junior staffers of the bank are taught that the bank is built on Jesus and cannot be "pulled down" by detractors. This sort of shallow thinking encourages sloth and inefficiency. How can managers be effective when they are not held accountable for their actions?

Intercontinental Bank's argument that a cabal is trying to destroying the financial sector holds no water. If a "smaller" bank like AccessBank could force African Petroleum, an energy behemoth, to meet its obligations, what prevents Intercontinental Bank from using the same means unless its people have dirty secrets? The bank is at war with nearly all its clients in the energy trading sector as a result of its sharp practices. These firms know that they have the bank over a barrel and will use this weapon as an excuse. Its venture into real estate has also been a failure as the economic meltdown has cooled the market for luxury houses.

Erastus Akingbola's foray into downstream marketing had less to do with patriotism than good old lucre. The bank's bosses saw the sector as an easy way to exploit oil traders by charging abnormal management charges and "upfront" interest. Since most of these marketers were swashbuckling cowboys who needed to loans to finance imports, they did not bother to contest the loansharking habits of the bank. There is a lack of accountability and transparency in Intercontinental Bank. Intercontinental Bank also borrowed heavily from foreign financial institutions and regular loan repayments have exacted a heavy toll on its balance sheet.

During his days at the helm of First Bank, Mr Sanusi said something very important when the he spoke to the Financial Times. He explained that the size of a bank was a secondary to its ability to manage risk. This ideology explains why some banks have been able to weather the storm in spite of their huge loan portfolios. GTBank, for instance, recently gave a 50M dollar loan to AMNI International and was part of the consortium that financed a recent Lafarge WAPCO project. What project has Intercontinental Bank financed this year? Dr Akingbola has been on a nationwide tour lobbying Northern traditional rulers to put pressure on Sanusi L. Sanusi. In the past three months, he has visited countless emirs, the Sultan and northern governors.

In spite of the bank's professed patriotism, the bank has done nothing with the 100 million dollar loan that it got from the African Development Bank. Instead, Intercontinental Bank keeps making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The bank was named in the controversial Gbenga Daniel issue where a lowly cook had 400 million transferred into his account. It was also named as one of the underwriters that refused to meet their obligations to African Petroleum’s public offer.

The End of Erastus Akingbola’s banking career.

Sanusi has done the right thing by dismissing Erastus Akingbola and his fellow travellers in the banking industry. We can no longer allow be sentimental over matters of such importance.


Thank you for your time.



Dayo Coker.
Blogger and Policy Analyst
dayocoker@gmail.com

Erastus Akingbola's role in Intercontinental should be properly investigated.
that man is an epitome of everything that is wrong with Nigerian banking.
men who are so inscecure in themselves and keep acquiring and displaying obscenity in a bit to make up for their insecurity.

nex:
Now that you've all gone to sleep, can I post? CAN I POST?

First, my dear friend davidylan, if Sanusi fired Southern CEOs and replaced them with Northern CEOs, we can contemplate the Northernization of  the banking industry. Not with the way thing went.


Look at all these banks. Starting with Union Bank, Finbank and Afribank, do you need a soothsayer to tell you that these banks are dead. Coming to join them in that mass  grave soon are Unity Bank, Wema Bank, Sterling Bank and Spring Bank too would have been there if not for their acquisition by Platinum/Habib Bank. All these Banks mentioned, you don't need an oracle to divine their destiny.


The banks that you'd be suprised to see on that list though are Oceanic Bank and Intercontinental Bank. However let me tell you this. Did you know Oceanic Bank was one of those sponsoring the Third Term Agenda? This alone will tell you that they were trying to seek favours from the Federal Government to stay alive. Every economic summit I watched from 2007 till date, Cecilia Ibru always sat by Soludo. I said to myself, that bank is in trouble. That is the investment eye. You look at a picture and see data.

Intercontinental Bank was on these pages just as frequently as MEND was. Where you have Lucky Igbinedion as one of their major depositors. CEO buying Private Jets, Radio Stations and all sorts. Wearing bling-bling all over the place like he's Snoop Doggy Dogg. This bank had sold themselves to AIG through several underhand deals and I knew they would have serious crises. Their depositors woke up one morning to find their minimum deposit had become N10,000 overnight at one time.


I'll tell you all that every single bank in Nigeria today is stressed, but the most outrageously insanely alarming are the ones CBN took control of.


I know because of the Pa James analysis we use to  outline issues on Nairaland, must people take my words with a pinch of salt. Okay. No wahala. Carry go!

i am really suprised how Sterling came thru the inspection process, considering it is one of the 10 they have inspected?
i am waiting for unity to go that way too.
Sanusi, please try and arrest voodoo banking in Nigeria. it is the bane of the sector.
no one should use balance sheets in validating anything. those things are completely cooked.No iota of truth in them.

adconline:
this  singular action has killed investor's confidence. There is going to be a run on these banks. He could have asked these CEOs to resign instead of ousting them. This Lamido is a banker not a micro or macro economist who undestands how the economy works. A banker is supposed to be the minister of finance while a seasoned economist will be appoinetd as the CBN governor. This might be the right decision, but was carried out in a wrong way which would send signals that all the banks are not sound. Naija  a crawl forward and a big jump backward. Whose bank is next?

you talk like you are not a Nigerian.
No one resigns here.
they would have refused that route.
Now they can claim to be victims and spend the next 2 years in court.
if they resigned, that route will be unavailable and they will b termed losers.
we have fundamental problems in the Nigerian society.

before i go through the mountain of posts in this thread, can i make 2 comments?
first, there is no ethnic agenda here, so please no one should belittle the seriousness of the matter by making such simplistic and childish comments.
secondly, i do not mind who is removed as long as Cecelia Ibru is one of them.
Have you looked at her CV?
she has no business being a branch manager not to talk of being the CEO of a bank.
forget how the art and science of banking has been bastardized in Nigeria, it is a specialised trade and involves a lot of intricacies.
as long as we continue this voodoo banking in Nigeria. banking that is all about chasing crooks for deposits and giving loans to friends and relatives.
Sanusi try and enthrone meritocracy in the banking industry, please.

moderators, please delete my duplicate thread.
i did not see this before starting that one.
kindly delete.

AT last the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has wielded the big stick. In one fell swoop, managing directors and chief executive officers of five banks along with their executive directors, were sacked by the apex bank yesterday.

The phenomenal rejig, announced by CBN Governor Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, affected the chief executive officers of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola; Sebastine Adigwe of AfriBank Plc; Okey Nwosu of Finbank Plc; Mrs Cecilia Ibru of Oceanic Bank Plc and Barth Ebong of Union Bank Plc.

To replace them are John Aboh for Oceanic Bank Plc, Mahmud Alabi (Intercontinental Bank), Nebolisa Arah (Afribank), Suzanne Iroche (Finbank) while Funke Osibodu takes over at Union Bank Plc.

Sanusi told journalists yesterday that the removal of the banks' chiefs was due to excessively high level of non-performing loans, which was attributable to poor corporate governance practices, lax credit administration processes and the banks' credit risk management practices.

According to him, the percentage of non-performing loans to total loans ranged from 19 per cent to 48 per cent while the five banks would therefore need to make additional provision of N539.09 billion.

Sanusi explained that the total loan portfolio of the five banks was N2.9 trillion, margin loans amounted to N456.28 billion and exposure to oil and gas was N487.02 billion while aggregate non-performing loans stood at N1.2 trillion representing 40.81 per cent.

From the statistics, he said, it was evident that the banks accounted for a disproportionate component of total exposure to capital market and oil and gas sector thus reflecting heavy concentration to other banks in the industry.

The governor said the huge provisioning requirements led to significant capital impairment, adding that all the banks were under-capitalszed for their current levels of operations and were required to increase their provisions for loan losses, which impacted negatively on their capital. Indeed one is technically insolvent with a Capital Adequacy Ratio of (1.01 per cent), thus, a minimum capital injection of N204.94 billion would be required in the five banks to meet the minimum capital adequacy ratio of 10 per cent, he said.

Sanusi said: "The five banks were either perennial net takers of funds in the inter-bank market or enjoyed liquidity support from the CBN for long periods of time, a clear evidence of illiquidity. In other words, these banks were unable to meet their maturing obligations as they fall due without resorting to the CBN or the inter-bank market.

"As a matter of fact, the outstanding balance on the Expanded Discount Window (EDW) of the five banks amounted to N127.85 billion by end of July 2009, representing 89.81 per cent of the total industry exposure to the CBN on its discount window while their net guaranteed inter-bank takings stood at N253.30 billion as at August 2, 2009. Their liquidity ratios ranged from 17.65 per cent to 24 per cent as at May 31, 2009. (Regulatory minimum is 25 per cent)

"It is important to note that at least three of the banks are systematically important (accounting for more that five per cent of assets and deposits in the banking system) and together the five banks account for 39.93 per cent of loans, 29. 99 per cent of deposits, and 31.47 per cent total assets as at May 31, 2009.

"Given the extent of the asset quality problem leading to liquidity stresses, and the variety of stress points on the banks' balance sheets, failure to act to secure the financial health of these banks will clearly place the system at risk.

"The Central Bank has a responsibility to act to protect all depositors and creditors and ensure that no one losses money due to bank failure. The bank also needs to move decisively to remove this principal cause of financial instability and restore confidence in the banking system.

"Consequently, having reviewed all the reports of the examiners and the comments of the directors and deputy governors, I am satisfied that these five institutions are in a grave situation and that their managements have acted in a manner detrimental to the interest of their depositors and creditors.

"Therefore, in exercise of Other Financial Institutions Act 1991, as amended, and after securing the consent of the Board of Directors of the CBN, I hereby remove the managing directors and the executive directors of the following banks Intercontinental Bank Plc, Afribank Plc, Finbank Plc, Oceanic Bank Plc and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc from office with effect from Friday, August 14, 2009.

Sanusi said their successors were tasked with continuing the businesses of the banks as a growing concern, adding that the apex bank was injecting N400 billion into the affected banks with immediate effect in form of Tier 2 Capital to be repaid from proceeds of capitalisation in the near future.

According to him, the injection is sufficient to resolve and stabilise all the institutions and enable them continue normal business. "The injection of fresh capital by the CBN is a temporary measure as government does not intend to hold the shares for long and shall divest its holdings as soon as new investors recapitalise these banks."

Sanusi advised all debtors of the nation's banks, that the CBN and all government agencies were united in our commitment to support the recovery effort of the banks. "Debtors who do not pay shall have their names published in national newspapers in due course and we will solicit the support of law enforcement agencies in recovery."

He assured customers of the banks and all the banks in general that there was no cause for alarm, and urged them to continue to transact normal business with the banks where their accounts were domiciled as the exercise was meant to strengthen the banking industry and recapitalise the affected banks.

Sanusi stated that the scope of the special examination was intended to cover all the nation's 24 banks.

"So far, we have concluded the audit of 10 banks including these five, the others being Diamond Bank, First Bank, United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank and Sterling Bank. We have also commenced the next batch of 11 banks and hope to conclude them by end of August.

"All in all, we expect to conclude the audit in mid-September. The Central bank is requiring all Banks to make appropriate provisioning for non- performing loans and disclose them. We hope that by the end of this quarter, all banks would have cleaned up their balance sheets.

"On the basis of the information available to us so far, we are confident that the banking system is safe and sound and we have dealt with the major sources of systemic risk," Sanusi said.

The CBN, he said, would not waiver in its desire to ensure that public confidence in the banking system was maintained through appropriate disclosures and reinvigoration of its policy of zero tolerance on all professional and unethical conduct.

"We will not allow any bank to fail. However, we will also ensure that officers of banks and debtors who contribute to bank failures are brought to book to the full extent of the law and that all proceeds of infraction are confiscated where legally feasible," he declared.

Heavy presence of the mobile policemen was noticed at the headquarters of the affected banks yesterday.

The Guardian had exclusively reported a debt stock of N1.25 trillion being owed the banks by some high profile individuals and firms, with a significant percentage of the debts in foreign currency.

As at Thursday, further disclosures increased the list of such high profile debtors to 50, owing over N3.5 trillion.

Irked by the development, the banks decided to frontally confront the debtors publicly, as exemplified by Intercontinental Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, among others.

CBN had opted for full disclosures while mandating the banks to make provisions for such debts in their accounts.

Eurasia Group, a New York-based research firm, said last May that banks in Nigeria might have as much as $10 billion or N1.48 trillion of toxic assets. The bad debt is partly the result of at least N1 trillion of margin loans used to buy shares as equities soared almost 13-fold since 2000, according to Bank of America Corp.

Meanwhile, shareholders of the affected banks yesterday urged the CBN to do a comprehensive work in its effort to restore public confidence in the sector.

National Chairman, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr Boniface Okezie, said the CBN should do what he described as a "proper job," adding that his group believes the problems in the sector were more than what had been disclosed.

Okezie also described the sack of the five bank chiefs as a selective process, which would not tackle the rot in the sector.

A member of another shareholder's group, who did not want his name mentioned, said the CBN should also share part of the blame because it (CBN) was not proactive enough" to protect the public interest.

"The CBN was too slow. This is medicine after death. They should be courageous. The problems are far more than the public is being told. Enough of this deceit," he said

Also, a stockbroker with profound Securities Limited, Mr Alabi Jacobs said: "For now, this will create apathy on the part of investors; they might decide to dump shares and we expect that in the next few weeks, the market will go down. It will however recover in the long run.

A financial analyst, Mr. Kennedy Izuagbe, said that the move by the CBN was laudable and had shown the level of illiquidity in the country's financial sector.

the market is not worth being in.
there is lots of unclear dynamics therein.
no economic abd finace professor can decipher the happenings in that market.
i closed my account last week after suffering a loss of over 1.5 million (no much in some opinion but a lot for me).
i will advise you look well before you leap.
that market is seriously manipulated and i am yet to be proven otherwise.

talk to dbanj.
i am sure your script is better than Koko mansion.
he will be interested.

triistar86:
NOTICE: This is to inform my fellow NLDERS that BOMBSQUAD and MBULELA has been declared missing for the past 24hours. All attempts to locate them has proven futile. In the spirit of oneness and brotherliness should you see either of them in their garment of shame and reproach please inform them that their attention might be needed on this thread. Thank you very much.

very funny. there is nothing more to say.
you are convinced even in the absence of any concrete proof and in the face of the quality of that 'duet'.
i leave you to your convictions.
I am convinced otherwise.
Cheers.

Master Chef Naija
Dancing with the Stars (been done before.Maybe better publicity and bigger celebrities)
love-vendor my ride

Reality shows are dwindling in popularity because they lack any sort of creativity and people watch tv to escape from reality, especially in Niaja. the reality is painful and harsh.people need an escape.

The United States Secretary of State, Senator Hilary Clinton, yesterday expre-ssed concern about Nigeria’s anti-graft war, saying the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had “fallen off in the last two years”.
She, however, earlier expre-ssed strong support for Nigeria’s electoral reforms ahead of the 2011 elections and efforts taken so far by the Federal Government including the granting of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta.
Clinton, who spoke at a Town Hall Meeting at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja – which was largely controlled by the Transition Monitoring Group, an NGO – as part of activities during her visit, called for the “reinstatement of anti-graft initiative,” as was conceived in the beginning.
“The EFCC has fallen off in the last two years. We want to see them start work again as before,” she said.
She expressed US support for Nigeria’s anti-graft war, saying all those found to have been involved in corrupt practices would be brought to book. She said that already two US citizens implicated in the Halliburton bribe scandal had been convicted.
The former first lady said that the perception of Nigeria as a corrupt country continues to be a problem and that the concentration of wealth at the top to the detriment of the vast majority may prevent Nigeria from attaining its full potentials.
She described as unacceptable a situation where Nigeria cannot translate her huge revenue from crude oil into development of infrastructure.
She decried the failure of government due to corruption and bad governance in African countries.
“Africa does not need more strong men, but good governance,” she said adding that “with good governance nothing can stop Nigeria. Oil cannot stop bad governance, but can provide basic infrastructure.”
She flayed the win-at-all cost syndrome in electoral battles and called on politicians to put the interest of the nation above self.
“Part of creating a strong democracy is that the losers accept defeat and know that it is for the benefit of the country,” she said.
The former US presidential candidate expressed support for the Federal Government’s amnesty initiative for militants in the Niger Delta.
She said that the political parties need to imbibe internal democracy within their parties and that the National Assembly need to be convinced to pass a strong electoral bill that will ensure the independence of the body charged with conduct of elections.
Earlier at a joint press conference with Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, Clinton stated that the US is exploring how best to support Nigeria in its quest for electoral reforms and in bringing about sustainable peace in the Niger Delta.
“I will be talking with my counterpart, the Secretary of Defence and we will through our joint efforts, through our Bi-National Commission mechanism operate. We know this is an internal matter, we know it’s up to the Nigerian people and their government to resolve, but we will work to see how we will offer that assistance,” she said.
She endorsed Nigeria’s “comprehensive political framework approach towards resolving the conflict in the Niger Delta, in co-operating with the region’s stakeholders, focusing on the region’s development needs,” and in granting amnesty to the militants.
Asked what the US and its allies are doing to ensure that the continent’s money stashed overseas are returned and that the Western countries do not continue to be a haven for Africa’s loot, the former Senator evaded the question and[b] instead urged other African countries including Nigeria to borrow a leaf from Botswana’s zero tolerance on corruption, and in deploying resources from mineral resource, to building infrastructure.
[/b]Clinton would not comment on whether the violent crises in some parts of the North-eastern region is a manifestation of the incursion of Al-Qaeda into Nigeria, but warned that the global fight against terrorism requires concerted effort of all nations.
She acknowledged Nigeria’s enviable contributions in peacekeeping efforts, fight against human trafficking, reduction in trade barriers and international cooperation, among others.
Clinton leaves Nigeria for Liberia today in continuation of her seven nation African tour.

not like crazy - Jill Scott.
i am crying as i type this.

guys, you have made your points and insults.why not move on?

i no fit shout.

nikky5:
Candid speaking I found it shocking to read this post concerning what Daddy G.O. said on holy ghost night in this forum.I pity the poster and the babblers who wagged their tongues and cast aspersions on men of God.these are people that do not have the fear of God and are still gropping in the dark.No doubt Redeem is the fastest growing church in Africa and in the world.Go and see the new auditorium in the RCCG camp built without demanding any levy from any member.Besides the church is blessed with millionaires and one of such parishes is the CITY OF DAVID.Pastor Adeboye did not asked the government to give him money neither did he ask any bank for loan facility.so why the hullabaloo about the millionaire club when the millionaires are in the church already.He told the members what the projects on ground. Pray that God makes you one because it is the voice of povery that is crying out from these babblers.Be warned, Jesus said by the words of your mouth you shall be justified or condemn.May the good Lord have mercy on the enemies of the Lord's servants.

I am a Christian and attend Redeemed regularly but i put it to you that you comments are irrelevant.
what use is the massive auditorium in the camp when their are people who can barely feed in the congegrgation?
what use are all these projects when they are all centered around edifices that massage the human ego?
we are told that God does not swell in houses built by human hands, so what is the essence of all these projects upon projects?
schools and universities that wards of members cannot afford yet it was built from their offerings and tithes.
how about donating an MRI in each local govt in lagos state and one in each other state of the federation?
tangible projects that will touch the live of people and bring succor to the oppressed while also giving them the light of the gospel.
i know that RCCG does its bit but it can do so much more with the wealth at its disposal.
all these edifices, building projects and gulf streams will not account for anything in heaven.
i am a Christian but the state of the church especially the pentecostal church in Nigeria in particular is appalling.
do not bunch me together with the lot just criticizing the GO for the fun of it and for the sake of making fun of the faith.
but the fact is that display of wealth,opulence and materialism in the Naija church is sickening to say the least.
by the way, God will also have mercy on his servants.we all need it.

nex:
Why would you put go to helll in quotation marks? Do you even know what quotation marks are used for? I don't believe Deacon Gamaliel Onosode will speak such words.

He obviously did not.
He is too decent a man to do that.