The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Access Bank

  • Access Bank, Friends Africa partner

    Access Bank, Friends Africa partner

    Access Bank is partnering with Friends of the Global Fund Africa (Friends Africa) to host a high-level stakeholder Engagement Forum tagged: Sustainable health financing in Nigeria in Abuja.

    In a statement, the bank’s Group Managing Director, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said: “The bank is committed sustainably to the eradication of the AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This informed the initial donation of $1million to the Global Fund to fight this pandemic and the partnership of the Bank with Friends Africa to host the Sustainable Health Financing Forum in Nigeria.”

    Aig-Imoukhede stressed that the Global Fund’s “Gift from Africa project” was designed to “provide the African private sector with an opportunity to provide responsible leadership and demonstrate to the world that Africans are prepared to play an active part in solving the continent’s challenges.”

    Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Mark Dybul, said double-digit declines in mortality from the three diseases could be jeopardised if donors fail to top up the fund.

    Friends Africa is committed to financing of prevention and treatment of the AIDS virus and other global killers will use the forum to urge top donors to provide an additional $15 billion to fight infectious diseases over the next three years or risk reversing a decade of advances in care.

     

  • Access Bank doubles 2012 profit

    Access Bank doubles 2012 profit

    Access Bank Plc said full-year profit more than doubled as customer deposits increased.

    Net income advanced to N38.6 billion ($244 million) in 2012 from N14.5 billion a year earlier, the lender said in a statement on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Revenue rose 54 per cent to N208.3 billion as loans and advances to customers climbed five per cent to N604 billion. Deposits grew nine per cent to N1.2 trillion.

    Access restrained its loan book following it’s purchase of Intercontinental Bank Plc in 2011, Chief Executive Officer Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said in October.

    An increased levy this year on banks by the state-owned Asset Management Corp. of Nigeria, created in 2010 to buy bad debts from lenders, may erode earnings this year, said Olubunmi Asaolu, an analyst at FBN Capital Ltd.

    The bank’s shares were up 0.1 per cent to N10.50 at the close of business yesterday, the highest since March 14. Access has advanced 16 per cent this year compared with the 25 percent gain of the Bloomberg NSE Banking Index.

  • Reps summon Access Bank over tax evasion

    Reps summon Access Bank over tax evasion

    The House of Representatives Committee on Finance has summoned the management of Access Bank Plc over the bank’s tax records.

    According to the Chairman of the committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who said the committee has already forwarded letters of invitation to Access Bank and other affected institutions ahead of the investigative hearings, the bank is to be investigated for tax evasion.

    The investigative hearing would commence after the two-week break that commenced last Thursday.

    “After preliminary investigation, we have been able to establish that Access Bank Plc has a lot of inconsistencies in its tax remittances over several years. There is a huge inconsistency in their annual returns, audited accounts and financials.

    “As a matter of fact, in some instances they were found to have concealed their balance sheet and even doctored it to evade taxes,” Jibrin said.

     

  • Court orders Access Bank to withdraw suit against Ubah

    Court orders Access Bank to withdraw suit against Ubah

    … And Capital Oil

    A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday ordered Access Bank Plc to withdraw a suit it filed against Capital Oil and Gas Limited and its promoter, Ifeanyi Ubah in England.

    The court ordered the bank to discontinue the suit within 48 hours and exhibit a notice of discontinuance at the next hearing date.

    Justice Okon Abang, in a ruling, faulted the bank’s decision to secure an order from a London Court despite a subsisting order of his court barring Access bank and others from interfering with the properties and business interests of Capital Oil and Gas Limited pending the determination of a suit by Ubah and his company.

    The judge upheld argument by lawyer to Ubah, Wole Olanipekun (SAN) that, by heading for London over a dispute in relation to a transaction that took place in Nigeria, the bank has “ridiculed the Nigerian judiciary.”

    He restrained the bank from enforcing the order made by the London Court against the assets and business interests of Capital Oil.

    The judge held that Ubah was at liberty to apply to his court for leave to commence contempt proceedings against bank and its principal officers.

    He further held the Ubah and his company could sue for damages if they so wish.

    The ruling was on an application by Ubah and his company, challenging the propriety of a worldwide assets freezing order obtained by Access bank from the London court on November 9 last year, in relation to issues that formed the subject of the pending suit before the Nigerian court.

    Olanipekun had argued on Friday that the respondents in the suit before the Nigerian court -Access and Coscharis Motors Limited violated the earlier order of the court.