The Nation Newspaper

Tag: United Bank for Africa Plc

  • ‘Hidden’ N249b: Court strikes out FG’s case against seven banks 

    ‘Hidden’ N249b: Court strikes out FG’s case against seven banks 

    …Six banks get N200, 000 compensation each

     

    A Federal High Court in Lagos has struck out a suit by the Federal Government seeking to recover $793,200,000.00 (about N249, 659,700,000.00) from seven banks which it claimed they hid for ‘unknown’ government officials.

    The banks are: United Bank for Africa Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc, First Bank Ltd, Fidelity Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Ltd and Sterling Bank Plc.

    Justice Chuka Obiozor, who gave the ruling yesterday, also ordered the government to pay N200,000 as costs to all of the commercial banks except Skye Bank which had no legal representation.

    He also barred the government from bringing the same action against the banks without the court’s permission.

    The ruling followed a notice of discontinuance dated August 7 brought on Tuesday by the Attorney-General of the Federation through Professor Yemi Akinseye-George SAN.

    Akinseye-George told Justice Obiozor that the government had decided to explore an ‘out of court settlement’ with the banks in the public interest.

    Last July 20, the government accused the banks of hiding $793m in contravention of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

    It sought and obtained an interim order directing the banks to remit the sum to a designated account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    But on Tuesday the Federal Government applied to discontinue the suit on the instruction of the Attorney-General.

    Akinseye-George relying on Order 50 Rule 2 Subsection 1, Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules of 2009, moved the court to strike out the suit.

    The application was challenged by the six banks which urged the court to substitute the strike out order for an order of dismissal.

    The lawyers, including UBA’s counsel, Dr. Ajibola Muraina, Seyi Sowemimo (SAN) for Fidelity Bank; Abimbola Akeredolu (SAN) for Sterling Bank. N. A. Oragwu (Diamond Bank); E.A. Okorie (First Bank) and Babatunde Ogungbamila (Keystone Bank) also asked for costs of between N10million and N20million for each bank as compensation or damages.

    However, following Akinseye-George’s argument that the banks were not entitled to any cost because, among others, they did not file any affidavit to particularise the nature of the damage they claimed to have suffered, Justice Obiozor adjourned till Wednesday for ruling.

    Delivering his decision Wednesday, the judge found, among others that since the suit did not proceed to trial the justice of the case was in favour of an order to strike it out, rather than a dismissal.

    He said: “I have also considered the reason given for the discontinuance – the demand, as it were, of public interest. I have also considered the fact that when a notice of discontinuance is duly and validly filed, it cannot be recalled, as the suit ceases to exist the moment it is effectively discontinued, subject to the payment of costs.

    “I find that as I have not adjudicated on claims in the action before me for a pronouncement on the merits of the issues arising therefrom, the proper order to make, with respect to this matter, is one striking out this suit and not of dismissal and I so hold.

    In the instant case before me, the matter is yet to proceed to trial. I do not find that the justice of this case demands that this matter should be dismissed.

    Regarding the costs demanded by the banks, the judge said: “Nevertheless, I shall not turn a blind eye to the effect of the interim order on the defendants. This case cannot now go on. I find no reason not to compensate the defendants with costs at least to those of them who have appeared in this matter.”

    He however declined to grant the amount demanded as costs, saying “I find the request for N10million or N20million as costs to the defendant not to be founded on, with respect, established principles.”

    The judge added: “The defendants deserve compensation which I assess and put at N200,000 against the favour of and to be paid to each of the first, second, fourth, fifth sixth and seventh defendants.

    “In the final analysis, the suit is hereby struck out and the plaintiff shall not re-list this suit without the prior leave of court. The interim order of this court made on the 20th of July 2017, are hereby set aside, truncated and discharged.”

  • CBN, banks brainstorm on solution to mass sacking

    CBN, banks brainstorm on solution to mass sacking

    The Bankers’ Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday gave assurance that the rate of mass sacking in banks would be reduced within the shortest time possible.

    The committee stated this at the end of its 327th meeting at the headquarters of the CBN in Abuja

    The Managing Director,Standard Chartered Bank,Mrs Bola Adelola, said the mass sacking in the sector was discussed at the meeting.

    Other members of the committee present at the briefing were the Director, Banking Supervision, CBN,Mrs Tokunbo Martins; Managing Director, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr Phillips Odouza and Managing Director, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc,Mr Emeka Emuwa.

    She said that while the banks understood the economic situation in the country, there would always be reasons for workers to be relieved of their jobs.

    “On the recent news item on retrenchment, we also discussed it and obviously banks understand the implications of people not being in employment. We know what the situation is like in the country.

    “Thus we are looking at ways of ensuring that we minimise many exit from our institutions. There will always be exit as you know because there is fraud and so on and so forth.

    “So we have noted the market sentiments and I am sure that going forward it will be different,” she said.

    Adesola said that the framework for a National Collateral Registry was almost ready and when released, it would facilitate the easy access of loans by bank customers.

    She said based on the guidelines, those seeking loans from banks could use movable assets such as vehicles, fridges, and other home appliances as collaterals.

    “You are all aware that the Central Bank of Nigeria is developing a National Collateral Registry. I am pleased to say that they have put the framework in place and the technology.

    “They have begun to engage stakeholders and we should expect a role out of the collateral registry being available to banks to register movable assets that they lend against.a policy statement will be issued shortly.

    And we expect that that will make more robust the banks’ credit process in lending to customers against movable asset,” she said.

    Meanwhile the Director, Banking Supervision, CBN, Mrs Tokunbo Martins, speaking on financial inclusion strategy, said the rate of Nigerians that were financially included in the financial sector had risen to 60.5 per cent.

    She said the committee planned to ensure that an additional six million people were captured into the financial system before the end of this year.

    “As at today, we have a financial inclusion rate of 60.5 per cent, and you will recall that the target is that by 2020 we should have 80 per cent of the population included.

    “So the CBN has agreed targets with the commercial banks and also microfinance banks and by the end of this year, we hope to increase the inclusion rate by eight per cent.

    “Strategies and milestones have already been mapped out to achieve that target at the end of the year,” she said.

    Also, the Managing Director, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr Phillips Odouza, said the reason for the delay in releasing the framework for the new flexible foreign exchange policy was to ensure more inputs from stakeholders.

    He said as a result of the huge challenge which the country had experienced in the past in managing foreign exchange, there was need for CBN to consult widely, to come up with a robust foreign exchange management framework.

    He warned those involved in currency speculation to desist from such practice. He said once the guidelines were finally released, currency speculators would regret their actions.

    “We also discussed the framework for flexible exchange rate. As you know, the Central Bank has been working on this for sometime. A lot of input has been received.

    “As you know, some other jurisdictions have also implemented the flexible exchange rate model and some of them have done very well and the others are still fine tuning what they have done.

    “In the case of Nigeria, we want to make sure that we come up with a model that is very robust and very comprehensive that will be able to address the major exchange rate issues that we are dealing with.

    “To this extent, we have gotten a lot of input from various stakeholders and these inputs are being distilled with a view of getting a robust flexible exchange rate model.

    “I believe that in a very short while, the exchange rate will be ready. And once this happens, it is going to be made public.And we will adopt it and start working with it immediately,” he said.

  • UBA in AFRIFF 2013 partnership

    UNITED Bank for Africa Plc has shown its commitment to the development of the African film industry as it lends its support to the 3rd edition of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF 2013).

    The financial institution supported the training workshops in cinematography, sound for film, scriptwriting and acting, making it possible for several young Nigerians with an interest in film to attend these classes, expense-free.

    The bank also went a step further with the endowment of several AFRIFF 2013 award categories with cash prizes ranging from 2,000 6,000 US Dollars.

    On why it chose to partner with African cinema, UBA’s Charles Aigbe, DH Marketing & Corporate Relations, says: “Films remain a great platform to showcase Africa’s rich cultural heritage to the world. We have and will continue to identify with initiatives that promote and encourage the film industry. Our support for AFRIFF represents our strong belief in the immense opportunities that the fast-growing film industry provides for Africans, especially the youth.”

    AFRIFF 2013 prizes endowed by UBA Plc. Include, Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Documentary and Best Short Film.

  • Fitch affirms eight banks, downgrades one

    Fitch affirms eight banks, downgrades one

    Fitch Ratings yesterday affirmed the Long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) of Zenith Bank Plc , First Bank, United Bank for Africa Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc , Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and the Long-term National Ratings of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc.

    Reuters report said the agency has downgraded Union Bank Plc’s Long-term IDR due to a change in Fitch’s opinion of the bank’s systemic importance relative to peers. Union’s Support Rating Floor (SRF) has been revised to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ due to its perceived lower systemic importance post restructuring.

    As a consequence, the bank’s Long-term IDR has been downgraded to ‘B’ from ‘B+’ and its National Rating to ‘BBB+(nga)’ from ‘A+(nga)’. At the same time, Union’s Viability Rating (VR) has been upgraded to ‘b-’ from ‘ccc’ due to its improved financial position with on-going restructuring.

    Access’s VR has been upgraded to ‘b’ from ‘b-’ given its larger franchise, improving performance and commitment to maintaining healthy Fitch core capital (FCC) ratios over the medium term and despite its high cost to income ratio as it integrates a large acquisition.

    As a consequence, the bank’s Long-term IDR is now driven by its VR of ‘b’ rather than its SRF of ‘B’. A full list of rating actions is at the end of this rating action commentary.