Posted by Ayo Olesin and Sukanmi Oriyomi on
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, on Tuesday in Lagos met with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof Charles Soludo, and bank chiefs to find ways of stemming the fresh upsurge in bank raids.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, on Tuesday in Lagos met with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof Charles Soludo, and bank chiefs to find ways of stemming the fresh upsurge in bank raids.
Details of the discussions at the 281st Bankers Committee meeting at the Lagos offices of the Central Bank were not disclosed for 'security reasons."
But the Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Jacobs Ajekigbe, briefed the press after the meeting, saying a sub-committee would be set up to work with the police in curbing the menace.
He said, 'The Inspector-General came to discuss the upsurge in robberies bank-wide and nationwide. We were advised to keep the discussions confidential because it is a security issue, but we agreed to form a sub-committee that will work with the police to address the security issues. The committee will assist the police to make banks safer."
Bank branches, especially in the South-West, South-East and South-South regions, have been attacked at random within the year by dare- devil robbers, leaving death and destruction in their trail.
Meanwhile, Soludo said on Tuesday that all insider-related debts of weak banks outstanding by the December 31, 2005, re-capitalisation deadline must be repaid before the banks would be wound up.
Speaking at the Bankers' Committee meeting, he warned that failure to repay the debts would mean that the chairmen and directors of such banks would take personal and collective responsibility for the debts and be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
At a post-meeting briefing of the press, CBN's Deputy Director, Banking Supervision, Mr. Godwin Oladejobi, echoed Soludo's warning.
He explained that the bank was concerned about recovering insider-related debts first, before going after debts owed by outsiders.
He said that the CBN expected a high rate of success with the consolidation programme, and that the banks that might not cross the threshold were not more than five per cent of total deposits in the industry.
He said the CBN was taking concrete steps to safeguard depositors in such banks.
Oladejobi also said that the CBN would conduct due diligence on the new banks that would emerge in the post-consolidation era to verify their claims to capital base, balance sheet size and other parameters of bank's status.
On the current status of the consolidation, he said that the UBA Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, and Access Bank Plc had received final approval, while six banks had been given approval-in-principle and at least 20 had obtained the CBN's pre-merger consent.
The Vice-Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Erastus Akingbola, also spoke on the outcome of the meeting.
He said more banks would clear the re-capitalisation hurdle before the end of the year.
The bankers also disclosed that banks have so far contributed N38.3billion to the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme, out of which N10.5billion had been disbursed to fund 203 projects nationwide.
THE PUNCH, Wednesday. October 19, 2005