FBN crisis: The casualties, beneficiaries

More facts are beginning to emerge on why the Central Bank of Nigeria sacked the entire Board of Nigeria’s oldest bank, First Bank of Nigeria and its Holding company on Thursday.

National Daily gathered that the rumble within the bank’s top echelon didn’t start with the removal of the bank’s MD/CEO, Adesola Kazeem Adeduntan, and subsequent appointment of Gbenga Shobo, erstwhile Deputy Managing Director as the new CEO, but rather it began after the bank’s chairman Ibukun Awosika received a letter from the Central Bank stating that the bank had not complied with regulatory directives to divest its interest in HoneyWell Flour Mills “despite several reminders” to it by the Apex bank.

The CBN also stated in the letter that it was giving the bank within 48 hours to ensure Honeywell repays its obligation to it “failing which the CBN will take appropriate regulatory measures against the insider borrower and the bank.” It also instructed the bank to divest from its holdings in Bharti Airtel Nigeria Ltd and Honeywell Flour Mills within 90 days.

These loans are all related to the Chairman of the FBN Holdings, Oba Otudeko, who is also the founder and chairman of the Honeywell Group.

Sources with knowledge of the matter indicate the letter from the CBN did not go down well with Otudeko leading to the decision to remove Adeduntan.

Adeduntan, it was learnt, is a major leverage for the CBN who rely on him to implement some of the initiatives approved by the CBN for the restructuring of the bank.

It was also learnt that for years, the CBN has used Adeduntan as a check against attempts by directors of First Bank to secure insider loans, a major source of conflict between the CBN and Oba Otudeko.

While all the engagements were ongoing, the CBN issued a query to Ibukun Awosika the Chairman of First Bank demanding that she explain why the decision to remove Adeduntan was taken.

The CBN claimed that because it had played a major intervention role that avoided a collapse of the bank due to bad loans and poor capital adequacy ratios, it had a major stake in how the bank is run.

It was also gathered that FBNH had recorded a total loan impairment of over N565 billion between 2016 and 2020. About N376.4 billion, more than half the total loans impaired, were provided for in 2016 and 2017 alone.

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Oba Otudeko who was the major target of this fiasco is believed to have obtained billions of unpaid loans in First Bank and had to be controlled by the CBN through Adeduntan.

Meanwhile the CBN in another statement assured depositors with the bank that their money is safe, and should therefore not panic.