Chairman, House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, Tony Nwulu has made known the intention of the lower house to probe into the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) withdrawal of Skye Bank’s operating license.
The move to probe, according to Nwulu, is to address public outcries by shareholders over corporate misgovernance by most Public Limited Companies (PLCs) and allegations of fraudulent activities by the management of these firms.
During an interaction with newsmen, Nwulu assured Nigerians that the House will look into the takeover of Skye Bank Plc in the ongoing probe of insurance companies and banks in Nigeria.
“We were on recess when the bank was taken over but now that we are back we will look into the matter.” – Nwulu
Though the committee had planned to continue the probe of insurance companies and banks on resumption from recess but was adjourned due to the untimely death of a member, Hon. Funke Adedoyin. The probe is now slated for Wednesday, October 17, 2018.
“We had to reschedule the probe because we are mourning a member but all those that we invited must show up by next week Wednesday. As you are aware, we have been on this matter for some time now and we intend to reach the bottom. There is too much corporate mis-governance in the sector,” Nwulu added.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed had also disclosed that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is willing to prosecute anyone eventually found responsible for the collapse of the now-defunct Skye Bank Plc.
The back story
As we exclusively reported, Nigeria’s apex bank on September 21st announced an immediate revocation of Skye Bank Plc’s operating license. The bank’s share capital had run into negative territory due to bad loan deals. It was also in urgent need of recapitalisation which its shareholders could not achieve.
As part of this development, therefore, the bank’s name was changed to Polaris Bank Limited; a bridge bank which is to oversee the liquidated entity until Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) finds a new buyer.
In the meantime, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele has repeatedly explained the legal reason behind the bank’s name change. According to him
“the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government has invested close to N800 billion in this bank, at some point, it had to be seen to be owned by the CBN.”