Skye Bank in distress as CBN announces take over

…announces Ahmad Chairman, Abiru CEO

By Odunewu Segun

The Central Bank of Nigeria has finally announced the takeover of the Board and Management of Skye Bank Plc following the bank’s inability to meet the regulator’s minimum key liquidity and capital adequacy ratios. This is however barely one year after the same bank was strong enough to acquire Mainstreet Bank Ltd.

According to Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele who disclosed this earlier today in Abuja, the apex bank had appointed a new board and management for the bank following the resignation of the Chairman, Chief Tunde Ayeni, and Management Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo.

He said the bank’s outgoing board and management had consistently failed to turn the fortunes of the bank around despite consistent warnings from the CBN. In place of the outgoing board and management, Emefiele said the CBN had appointed Alhaji MK Ahmad as the new chairman, while Mr. Tokunbo Abiru is the new MD/CEO.

The Managing Director of the Bank and some top management staff had earlier resigned their position when they learnt about the move of the CBN to dissolve the board.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria had last year announced Skye Bank as among nine other banks that have demonstrated a level of distress that requires they recapitalize in order to avert the banks’ possibly falling into distress.

Other banks listed by the apex bank included United Bank for AfricA, First Bank, Diamond Bank, Sterling Bank, Heritage Bank, Wema Bank, Unity Bank and Fidelity.

According to an anonymous source, several of the affected banks have neglected to maintain healthy capital liquidity levels. As a result, some of the banks were described as tethering on the brink of collapse.

The CBN boss urged shareholders and customers of the bank to remain calm, stressing that the bank was not in distress.

“I maintain that Skye Bank is not in distress. We have only taken this unavoidable decision to ensure that depositors’ funds are not eroded,” he said.