The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has renewed the mandate of the Board of Skye Bank for additional two years in spite of non-availability of financial statement for 2016 and 2017.
The Board has M.K Ahmad and Tokunbo Abiru as its chairman and group managing director, respectively.
This was contained in a notice sent to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the attention of regulators, shareholders and customers, signed by Babatunde Osibodu, company secretary/general counsel of the bank.
Reacting to the development, Ayodeji Ebo, managing director, Afrinvest Securities, said, “It is impossible to assess the performance of the current management of Skye Bank due to the unavailability of audited financial statement for 2016 and 2017.
“The basis of the extension is however not clear, but we suspect may be due to other non-public information at the disposal of the CBN. The CBN should mandate the management of Skye Bank to share the audited financials of the banks as this is a publicly quoted company”, Ebo said in an emailed response.
The CBN had on July 4, 2016, intervened and reconstituted the Board of Directors of Skye Bank to pave the way for a new team to take charge of the affairs of the bank and resolve various issues that were hindering the optimal performance of the institution.
Accordingly, the apex bank gave the Board a clear mandate to turnaround the fortunes of the institution positively.
Acknowledging the support of the CBN so far, Osibodu noted in the notice, “We wish to inform the Nigeria Stock Exchange, the Bank’s esteemed shareholders and other stakeholders that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has renewed the mandate of the Bank’s Board of Directors for an additional two-year term till June 30 2020.”
According to Osibodu, “In the two years of the Board’s mandate, the team has stabilised of the institution, entrenched sound corporate governance and risk management practices, and restored depositors’ confidence.”
Continuing, the notice read: “In recognition of the stellar performance of the Board, the CBN has renewed the Board’s mandate for an additional two-year term till June 30, 2020.
“We wish to assure the bank’s shareholders and all stakeholders of the commitment of its Board and Management, working with the CBN and other regulators, to conclude various initiatives to achieve a positive and lasting turn around for the Bank and deliver value to its stakeholders.”
Recall that within two year of assumption of duty of the reconstituted board, it achieved laudable milestones especially as it concerns recovery in excess of over N94 billion in bad loans from chronic debtors, streamlined its branch network; divested from four local subsidiaries.
It also enhanced collateral documentation and its overall risk management practices, among several other transformational initiatives.
