Category: Money

The Board of Directors of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting (NSPM) Plc has approved the appointment of Joseph Ugbo as the substantive Managing Director/CEO.

This followed the dissolution of the firm’s Executive Management and an order that the current Acting Managing Director and two Executive Directors retire from the company.

Also approved is Alhaji Abbas Umar Masanawa as Executive Director in charge of Finance and Strategy.

A statement signed by NSPM Company Secretary/ Legal Adviser, Lawal Adamu, said the changes are in line with the new strategic direction of the company aimed at repositioning the NSPM as an efficient and profit-oriented company that would serve not only the Banknote and Security Printing needs of Nigeria, but also those of the West African sub-region.

The statement described Ugbo as a seasoned Chemical Engineer with over 29 years of engineering and management experience with internationally reputed manufacturing companies.

Prior to this appointment, he had worked in various levels and countries of Unilever Plc and rose to the position of Head of Manufacturing, where he coordinated all General Managers in manufacturing in the entire company.

From 2009 to 2014, he was General Manager of Dangote Flour Mills Plc in Calabar.  Ugbo obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos in 1982 and an MBA from the Lagos State University in 1999. He has also completed extensive trainings in Banknote Production and Security Printing from the Royal Joh. Enschede in The Netherlands.

Alhaji Masanawa has over 17 years of cognate banking experience and rose to the position of Deputy General Manager in Zenith Bank Plc. Prior to his appointment; he was Special Assistant to the Governor of the Central Bank.

He holds a Bachelors Degree in Agricultural Economics from Ahmadu Bello University, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Maiduguri.

He also completed courses and programmes from the Harvard Business School, London Business School and the University of Oxford.

Unified Payments has expressed its commitment in the processing of payment application in the new National Electronic ID Card (eID) being issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). Unified Payments is a payment transaction processing company owned by Nigerian banks.

In a statement, the Unified Payments said its role in the project is to further demonstrate its leadership position in the e-payment industry.

It explained that with the eID card, Nigerians will have the ability to deposit funds, receive social benefits, pay for goods and services at merchant locations within and outside the country as well as draw cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) around the world.

Under the processing arrangement, Nigerians identity data will be hosted and managed exclusively by NIMC while payment data will be hosted and managed by Nigerian banks and Unified Payments.

Managing Director and CEO of Unified Payments, Agada Apochi, commended NIMC for the bold step and the technological achievement, adding that the initiative would help drive financial inclusion as well as stimulate economic activities in the country.

Director General and CEO of NIMC, Chris ‘E Onyemenam said Unified Payments was selected as the pilot processor of the payment aspect of the card based on its exceptional track record.

“Being the first Processor in Nigeria certified to process EMV chip cards, the first to achieve the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification as well as its ownership by Nigeria banks, we have to entrust them with the role of processing the payment application in the National Identity Card,” he said.

Unified Payment Services Limited otherwise known as Unified Payments is a card-neutral and option-neutral Payments Service Provider founded in 1997 and owned by a consortium of Nigerian banks.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has created a company that would buy non-performing debts from banks. This is in line with the role of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) which bought non-performing loans from local lenders since 2010 when it was created.

The Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (ZAMCO) is expected to buy the loans under commercial terms, and assign collateral and all other rights, the central bank said in its monetary policy statement.

The company will seek “to clean up and strengthen banks’ balance sheets and provide them with the liquidity to fund valuable projects for the economy to rebound and to mitigate loss of confidence,” the statement added.

Non-performing loans at Zimbabwean banks rose to 18.5 per cent of total loans, or $705 million, in June from 1.6 per cent in 2009, the central bank said. The high level of bad debt is the key threat to the country’s banking industry, Harare-based IH Securities said in May.

ZAMCO will finance the purchases through “a combination of non-funded lines of credit, new inflows, long-term bonds and Treasury bills,” Bloomberg report said.

The Zimbabwean version, ZAMCO, which will be supervised by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, bought $45 million worth of bad debt from three banks since August 15, the central bank said.

There are 19 banks operating in Zimbabwe, including units of London-based Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc, as well as South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Limited.

In the case of AMCON, it has acquired NPLs worth trillions of naira from Nigerian banks.

The CBN had on August 5, 2011, revoked the operating licenses of three banks including; Afribank, Spring Bank, and Bank PHB, which according to it, did not show enough capacity and ability for recapitalisation.

In their place, the CBN through the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, established Bridge Banks and transferred the assets and liabilities of the three affected banks to the bridge banks.

The bridge banks are Mainstreet Bank Limited (Afribank), Keystone Bank Limited (Bank PHB), and Enterprise Bank Limited (Spring Bank).