Banking & Finance

Nigerians react after CBN takeover Skye Bank

 

Financial experts and shareholders have expressed mixed reactions over the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to revoke the licence of Skye Bank.

The stakeholders expressed their views in separate interviews in Lagos, while reacting to the revocation of the licence of Skye Bank by the apex bank.

Sheriffdeen Tella of the Economics department, Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun commended the decision of the apex bank.

Tella said the CBN had helped Skye Bank shareholders by making the announcement at the close of banking hour for the week.

 “There is no time that can be regarded as good for this kind of action but action must be taken whenever it becomes inevitable.

“Such actions are capable of dousing tension that normally follows sudden closure of banks,” Mr Tella said.

He said the shareholders had not really benefited from the bank because they had not received dividend on their investment for a long time.”

The Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd, Garba Kurfi, the decision of the apex bank as a regulator could not be faulted.

Kurfi said the development should serve as a lesson to both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to put their house in order.

He noted that SEC and NSE should be more active going forward by ensuring suspension of trading on the shares of any bank taken over by CBN to avoid making mockery of the capital market.

He said Skye Bank shares traded on the exchange on Sept. 21 and made some gains only for the licence to be revoked the same day.

“CBN has been demonstrating several times that it has no regards for shareholders but only depositors and as at today the only loser in the bank are the shareholders,” Kurfi said.

Boniface Okezie, national coordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, said the CBN needed to explain its actions to Nigerians for better understanding.

Okezie said the apex bank needed to find a lasting solution to the banking sector crisis which was becoming an embarrassment not only to government but to the investing public.

He said the CBN should be held responsible for the development in Skye Bank because it granted the bank the approval to acquire Afribank.

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