The NSE, in its latest X-Compliance report, said the Access Bank and Diamond Bank were fined for failing to disclose the resolutions passed at the meeting of their board of directors.

Access Bank was fined N4.41m, while Diamond Bank Plc was fined N3.23m, according to the report, which brings the total amount to be paid by the resulting bank from the merger to N7.64m.

First Aluminium was fined N476,280 for non-dispatch of the notice of its Annual General Meeting and annual reports to shareholders 21 days before the date of the meeting.

The NSE said every listed company was required to provide the Exchange with timely information to enable it efficiently perform its function of maintaining an orderly market.

It stated that in accordance with the provisions of Appendix III: General undertaking (equities), the rulebook of the Exchange, 2015 (issuers’ rules) and the Exchange’s circular no. NSE/LARD/LRD/CIR3/17/05/12 on publication of announcements or press releases via the issuers’ portal, listed companies were required to obtain prior written approval from the Exchange before publications that affect shareholders’ interest were made in the media or via the issuers’ portal.

The NSE said in addition, companies were also required to disclose material information to the Exchange and publish the information in their annual reports.

The report read in part, “Access Bank, Diamond Bank and First Aluminium breached certain provisions of the listings rules and were sanctioned accordingly.”

So far in the year, Only Access Bank, Diamond Bank and First Aluminium have committed disclosure violations and have been fined accordingly.

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The bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Uzoma Dozie, said this in a statement signed by the bank’s Head of Media, Ezechinyere Anyanwu, on Friday in Abuja.

According to Dozie, the move was part of Diamond Bank’s strategy to focus on Nigeria’s significant opportunities.

He said that the change in the license means Diamond Bank could expand product services to Nigerian consumers.

”With this approval, the bank will cease to operate as an international bank. The re-licensing as a national bank supports Diamond Bank’s objective of streamlining its operations to focus resources on the significant opportunities in the Nigerian retail banking market, and economy as a whole.

“The move follows Diamond Bank’s decision to sell its international operations, which included the disposal of its West African Subsidiary in 2017 and Diamond Bank UK, the sale of which is currently in its final stages.

“The change to national bank status also enables the bank to maintain a lower minimum capital requirement of 10 per cent, as against 15 per cent required for international banks,” Dozie was quoted as saying.

Dozie said that the approval would enable the bank to deploy more capital for stronger growth in the quarters ahead through additional investment in technology platforms.

He said it would also enable the bank deploy funds to customer acquisition and expansion of loans to the critical sectors of the economy.

According to Dozie, the move to a national banking license marks a continuation of a strategy to focus on Nigeria’s significant fundamental trends.

This, he said included a large under banked population and Africa’s biggest economy. ”By focusing and optimising our resources towards Nigeria and the priority area of retail banking, we will be better positioned for longer term growth and greater profitability.

“The reduction in minimum capital requirement also increases our capacity to expand the quantum of business and product services we can offer consumers. It will also represent a key step in strengthening our financial position.

“This development does not affect the bank’s ability to offer services to its clients in international locations. Rather, with focus on its domestic business being priority, the bank also intends to pay down in full, the Eurobond loan of $200m at maturity in May 2019.

According to the chief executive, there will be no refinancing of the loan.

He said this was because of the intent to pay down with foreign exchange generated from its internal operations, a reflection of the solidity of its operations and funds flow in the last few years.

He further said that top quality services to international customers would continue through the bank’s digital channels and network of correspondence banks.

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Uzoma Dozie, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, on Monday attributed the milestone to its digital penetration strategy with strong focus on the Nigerian market.

Uzoma said that the bank’s digital strategy was paying off as the institution recorded a milestone figure of three million digital customers and significant increase in its mobile platform transaction fees.

He said that the bank’s non-interest income during the period grew by 6.4 per cent to N18.8 billion during the period on higher fees from retail transactions on mobile platform.

Uzoma noted that customers’ loan volume decreased by 3.6 per cent to N728.7 billion as maturities exceeded new loans during the period.

He said that the nation’s economy continued to record improvements at a macro level because of stable, higher than anticipated oil prices.

“We have witnessed 15 months of expansion reflected in monthly (Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data, but investor sentiment has remained mixed caused in part by the election season factor.

“We have capitalised on the positive macro environment to sustain interest income in the short run with positive prospects for growth and have made progress in growing non-interest income.

“PMI is an indicator of economic health for manufacturing and service sectors,’’ Uzoma said.

He said that the bank would continue to build awareness in the wider financial ecosystem to develop new frontiers in retail banking.

Uzoma said that among this activity were the Beauty Souk and TechFest events, targeted at entrepreneurs and emerging businesses in the fashion and technology sectors respectively.

“Our partnership with Lagos Business School’s Enterprise Development Centre to support young entrepreneurs continued with the seventh season of the Building Entrepreneurs Today programme.

“In addition to retail banking, we are investing more resources in our mid-market business banking services to seize the opportunities emerging in that segment.

“In the second half of 2018, these investments will lead to improved profitability overall.

“Despite a tough six months being reported, the outlook for 2018 remains bright for the Bank as we continue to focus on a return to strong profitability and improvement in other (Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),” Uzoma said.

The the bank during the period under review posted profit before tax of N2.92 billion compared to N9.52 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2017.

Gross earnings stood at N98.50 billion as against N97.89 billion achieved in the preceding period of 2017.

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Arraigned on Friday, November 11, 2016, Adamu was alleged to have made cash payment of $1 million being an amount exceeding the stipulated N5 million threshold payable cash by an individual according to law, to Faro. The offence is a breach of Section 1(a) of the Money Laundering Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 15 (2) (b) of the same Act.

Moving the bail application today, W. Y. Maman and W. T. Iorshe representing Adamu and Faro respectively, prayed the court to grant the accused persons bail on liberal terms adding that they would always be available for trial.

However, Ugwuebulam stated that the offences border on money laundering and other financial transactions without licenses. He urged the court to exercise its discretion judicially and judiciously.

In his ruling, Justice Dimgba admitted the accused persons to bail in the sum of N10 million each with two sureties in like sum. The money is to be forfeited to the Federal Government in the event the defendants abscond. The sureties, who must be civil servants must not below GL 13 and must own properties in the FCT or in the satellite towns in Lagos. The defendants must also deposit their travel documents with the court registrar.

Meanwhile, the defendants are to be remanded in Kuje prison custody until their bail terms are met while the case has been adjourned to January 23 and 24, 2017 for hearing.

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The judge ordered Oguike’s prison remand shortly after he was arraigned on Tuesday by the police Special Fraud Unit.

The three counts pressed against the defendant bordered on conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretences and advanced fee fraud.

The police, in the charge tendered in court by their prosecutor, CSP Effiong Asuquo, accused Oguike of obtaining N24m from one Ufomba Nnabugwu by falsely representing that he would deliver a property in the Ijegun Egba area of Lagos to the victim.

Oguike was also accused of making false loan facility documents in favour of himself, using the name of one Edwin Obele Ezeakachukwu and a property in the Ijegun Egba area of Lagos as collateral to the detriment of the victim.

The police alleged that he committed the offences sometime in 2014 contrary to the provisions of Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.

The prosecutor said Oguike is liable to punishment under Section 1(1)(a)(3) of the same Act as well as Section 1(2)(c) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap. M17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

Oguike, however, pleaded not guilty to the three charges following which the prosecutor urged the court to make an order remanding him in the prison custody and also sought a day for commencement of trial.

The defence counsel, John Itodo, however, made an oral application to the judge to admit his client to bail, saying the matter, which had been on for about two years, was only just withdrawn from the magistrate court and brought to the Federal High Court on Tuesday morning.

“We were at the magistrate court this morning for continuation of hearing when the prosecutor said they were withdrawing the case to refile at the Federal High Court. When we got outside, he just said we should proceed to the Federal High Court right away, and we didn’t have any objection about that,” Itodo said.

He pointed Justice Anka’s attention to the fact that the accused had been on bail before the magistrate, adding that he also did not default when he was earlier granted an administrative bail by the police.

In response, however, Asuquo said he was opposed to the oral bail application and urged the judge to order the defendant to file a proper motion for bail.

In his ruling, Justice Anka directed the accused to file his application for bail while the defence lawyer indicated that he would bring same to court on Wednesday.

While adjourning till October 6, 2016 for trial, Justice Anka ordered that Oguike should be remanded in the prison custody pending the determination of his bail application on Wednesday.

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While analysts and industry watchers had, because of the harsh macroeconomic outlook, forecasted sluggish growth and greyed result for the period, Diamond Bank’s income rose by 13.3 per cent year on year to N16.3 billion as against N14.4 billion recorded in comparable period of 2015.

Non-interest income surged by 33.4% to N26.5 billion, reflecting the successful efforts targeted at improving this income line and also the focused strategy of management, which were sharpened at improving digital functionality and widening financial inclusion.

Profit Before Tax (PBT) remained modest and stable at N10.5 billion while Profit After Tax (PAT) stood at N9.1 billion, thus meeting shareholders’ expectation for the period under review and showcasing the strategic strength of the management creatively configured to surmount the turbulent macroeconomic environment and the tough regulatory framework facing the financial services sub-sector.

The Bank improved on its credit creation by 28.6 per cent as loans and advances to customers grew from N763.6 billion in the same period last business year to N982.3 billion.

Also, loans to other banks jumped by 30.7 per cent to N78.5 billion in H1 2016 from N60.1 billion in the corresponding period last year, while its retail customers grew to over 13 million with 7 million of these opening accounts in the last 2 years.

Similarly, the Banks digital leadership in the financial services sub-sector gained ascendency as its Diamond Mobile Apps usage increased from 1.6 million to 5.1 million while volume increased from 1.3 billion to 5.5 billion year on year.

The Bank sustained a strong top line growth with the asset base surging to N1.970 trillion from N1.753 trillion in the same period last year, representing 12.4 per cent increase.

Commenting on the Bank’s H1 performance, Uzoma Dozie, Chief Executive Officer stated that despite the economic headwind, the Bank would remain resilient and sustain the positive growth throughout H2.

According to him, the Bank’s strong liquidity and capital adequacy ratios plus its digital transformation have rightly positioned it to meet customer obligations and offer service deliveries that are beyond banking.

“With the domestic economy contracting, the Nigerian banking industry has faced a number of challenges over the last six months. Nevertheless, in the first half of 2016, we have remained resilient in weathering these headwinds and there are real bright spots in our income streams, as well as noteworthy cost reduction, which gives us confidence going into the second half of the year.

“Due to actions taken and an ongoing prudent approach, our regulatory capital remains strong. This position of strength helped offset the one-off impact of the recent devaluation of the naira, as acknowledged by Fitch Ratings when they affirmed our B rating with a stable outlook.

Liquidity of the bank also remains high and is well above the guidance
ratio stipulated by CBN.

Although year on year impairment charge grew by 45.6 per cent to N19.0 billion, reflecting the Bank’s continuation of prudent provisioning, which is aimed at strengthening performance in the years ahead; its operating costs and interest expense are shrunk by 10.7% and 27.5% respectively compared to H1 2015, reflecting success of the cost control initiative and low cost deposit strategy.

Speaking further, Dozie stated that despite the catalogue of challenges facing the sub-sector, which were exacerbated by the recent devaluation of the naira and foreign exchange scarcity, culminating in backlog of unpaid salaries and wages for individuals, Diamond Bank has continued a diligent implementation of its focus on curtailing cost.

According to him, this has resulted in 10.7% reduction in operating expenses and 3.8% drop in employee benefit expenses for the period under review. The Bank also integrated further its retail offering and the supporting infrastructure with the opportunities created by its value chain marketing approach in the corporate and business banking segments.

“In the last few months, evidence has shown that the new strategy and initiatives to curtail costs are proving successful and are reflected in the bank’s financial indicators.

“This is reassuring. Year on year, costs came in lower and as we conclude the organizational restructure, we expect to harvest more savings from operational and employee expenses. The primary benefits of this however are the resources that we have freed up to provide improved services to customers.

“Having done this, we are optimistic that the Bank is in the right markets and has the wherewithal to excel and create value for shareholders in the long run,” stated Dozie.

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The judge also restrained the company and its agents “from tampering with, alienating, transferring or otherwise dissipating or appropriating the respondent’s fixed and movable assets, properties, machinery, tools of trade or other assets whatsoever.”

Justice Buba made the interim order in favour of Diamond Bank Plc, which claimed that R.T. Briscoe, comprising Briscoe-ford, Briscoe Motors, Briscoe Technical and Briscoe Properties, was indebted to it to the tune of N2.5bn.

The court restrained the company, “its directors, staff, management, employees, officers, agents, privies or any other persons under the authority of R.T. Briscoe from operating, withdrawing or otherwise tampering with the respondent’s funds under whatsoever name or guise in any bank or financial institutions within Nigeria.”

The judge said the order would subsist until the final determination of the winding-up petition filed by Diamond Bank against R.T. Briscoe.

He also ordered all the concerned banks keeping custody of R.T. Briscoe’s funds to furnish Diamond Bank with details of amounts standing to the credit of R.T. Briscoe within seven days of the issuing of the order.

The bank claimed to have advanced credit facilities at various times in 2012 to the company to, among other things, augment its working capital and to finance the local purchase of fully built units of Toyota brand vehicles and spare parts from Toyota Nigeria Limited.

Diamond Bank, however, claimed that R.T. Briscoe “was still heavily indebted to it to the tune of N2,478,284,729.88 as of May 2016,” which it claimed had opened it to the danger of being sanctioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The respondent has spitefully rebuffed all entreaties and efforts of the petitioner to retrieve its third party-related funds, thus exposing the petitioner to the regulatory sanctions by the Central Bank of Nigeria and other regulatory agencies in the industry,” Diamond Bank’s lawyer, Kunle Ogunba (SAN), claimed.

R.T. Briscoe has, however, urged the judge to vacate the interim injunction freezing its bank accounts and assets.

It accused Diamond Bank of “suppressing, failing, neglecting and/or refusing to disclose material facts” to the court before obtaining the freezing order.

“The interim order of injunction made by this honourable court on June 13, 2016 is null and void ab initio,” counsel for R.T. Briscoe, Abubakar Sulu-Gambari, contended.

The counsel told the court had the order had foisted huge inconvenience of his client.

“As matters stand today, no staff (for June and beyond) can be paid unless the order of injunction dated 13 June, 2016 is discharged and vacated. Same applies to contractors, suppliers and tax authorities,” one Michael Oladele, who deposed to R.T. Briscoe’s affidavit, told the judge.

He said the only thing that would serve the best interest of justice was for the judge to vacate the order as “the petitioner/respondent will not be prejudiced.”

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The EFCC, which has frozen the bank accounts of the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the account of a company, belonging to the two sons of a former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, said it had recovered evidence of the alleged illegal transactions from the banks.

The bank tellers and other relevant documents, sighted by our correspondent, showed that the alleged scam took place between April 4, 2014, and December 15, 2014, when a total of N4.745bn was paid into the Diamond Bank account of Sylvan McNamara.

Sylvan McNamara was incorporated in November 2011, with the following people as directors: Ikenna Ezekwe, Idowu Oshodi and Elizabeth Adeniyi.

However, the company, on May 7, 2012, passed a resolution that it should open an account at Diamond Bank and have the following persons as signatories – Gbolahan Obanikoro, Babajide Obanikoro, Ikenna Ezekwe and Theresa Matuluko.

Babajide and Gbolahan are the sons of Musiliu Obanikoro, a former minister of State for Defence.

A source at the EFCC said, “The entire fraud started from the company that Obanikoro’s sons were operating. The company was set up by some people but curiously made Obanikoro sons signatories to the account.”

It was learnt that after money was paid into the firm’s account, about N759,384,300 was transferred into the accounts of about six bureau de change operators.

The two bureau de change operators, who received the bulk of the funds, were A. A. G. B.S Oil and Gas and North Line Limited. While A. A. G. B. S received N168m on June 16, 2014, North Line Limited received N835,000 on July 14; N83,750,000 on June 17; N1, 680,000 on September 3, 2014; about N2,325,300 on September 9; N5,932,500 on September 17 and N842,500 on July 30.

A detective at the EFCC added, “The owner of A. A. G. B. S Oil and Gas confirmed to us that the company is a BDC but was only bearing the name of an oil company. He confirmed that he received N168m from Sylvan McNamara and $1m was delivered to Obanikoro in cash while he was the Minister of State for Defence based on the exchange rate at the time.

“Obanikoro acknowledged receipt of the cash and we have recovered evidence. Some of the remaining dollars was received by Obanikoro’s son, Gbolahan.”

The detective at the EFCC further revealed that about N2bn from the money was withdrawn by the Obanikoro sons and then flown to the Akure Airport, Ondo, for onward transfer to Ekiti State.

While presenting the flight document, the detective said, “On June 12, 2014, barely 10 days to the Ekiti State governorship election, Obanikoro and a man, who claimed to be his Aide-de-Camp by the name of A. O. Adewale, chartered a private jet belonging to OAS Helicopters.

“About N724,500,000 was conveyed on the plane with tail number N638MA. The plane was an HS125 jet, operated by Okin Travellers, a subsidiary of Elizade. The plane landed at Akure at 9.38am and then went back to Lagos to get an extra N494,900,000 and landed at Akure at 5.57pm.

“Obanikoro handed the money over to one Abiodun Agbele, otherwise known as Abey, an associate of Fayose. Officials of Zenith Bank arrived at the tarmac in a bullion van to convey all the cash to the bank’s vault, located at 13 Alagbaka Estate, Akure.”

The detective, who presented bank tellers, said Abey gave the bank instructions at different times to pay the money into Fayose’s Zenith Bank account even after the elections.

He added, “Abbey directed the bank to pay N137m into the account of Ayodele Fayose with number 1003126654 and Bank Verification Number 22338867502. The bank teller dated June 26, 2014, was filled by Abbey with teller number 0556814.

“Abbey directed the bank to transfer N118,760,000 to the same account and paid in N50m cash into Fayose’s account.

“On April 7, 2015, several months later, Fayose personally moved N300m to his fixed deposit account at Zenith Bank with number 9013074033 with the same BVN. The account is domiciled at 15 Olusola Abiona Street, Estate, Alapere, Ketu, Lagos.”

The source added that on the instructions of Fayose, Abbey deposited N100m in the account of Spotless Investment Limited, a hotel, which is owned by Fayose and his wife, Olayemi.

Abbey, who was identified as the owner of a firm, De Privateer Limited, paid N100m into the Zenith Bank account of Spotless Investment Limited with number 1010170969 on June 17, 2014.

He also paid N219,490,000 and N300m on June 18, 2014 and June 19, 2014 respectively into his own company account with Zenith Bank marked 1013835889 while he kept a cash of N260m from the original funds.

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The bank however said in a statement that the affected workers were those that failed the year 2015 appraisal exercise.

The statement explained that a combination of factors was taken into consideration in the annual exercise, which ranged from low productivity to disciplinary issues, adding that the affected employees were duly exited in line with the bank’s staff exit policy.

“The staff disengagement exercise is coming a year after the bank’s successful integration with the erstwhile Mainstreet Bank, which it acquired in October 2014; the integration exercise described by analysts as a landmark in Nigeria’s banking industry has significantly improved Skye Bank’s ICT capacity and helped strengthen the bank’s service delivery.

“The bank extended its appreciation to the affected staff for serving the bank, describing them as members of the family who will always be accorded deserving respect in their future dealings with the bank.”

According to the statement, Skye Bank is adjudged by the Central Bank of Nigeria as one of the systemically important banks with over N1.3tn balance sheet, and has over 400 branches.

Diamond Bank Plc had last week retrenched over 200 members of its workforce, while Ecobank Nigeria sacked over 1,040 of its employees, in response to the difficulties in the economy.

FBN Holdings, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, had recently said it would cut down the number of its employees by 1,000.

As a result of the development, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Friday directed the banks to stop the retrenchment exercise.

The minister further directed that all the retrenchments done in the past four months should be put on hold pending the outcome of a proposed stakeholders’ summit for employers and employees of the banking, insurance and financial institutions scheduled for the first week of July.

“Following the high spate of petitions and complaints from stakeholders in the banking, insurance and financial institutions, I hereby direct the suspension of the ongoing retrenchment in the sector pending the outcome of the conciliatory meetings in the industry,” Ngige had said.

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The bank’s unaudited result submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), indicated that the profit was against N8.4 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2015.

Its profit after tax stood at N5.76 billion compared with N7.17 billion achieved in the preceding period of 2015.

Interest and similar incomes declined to N35.71 billion in contrast to N40.49 billion in 2015, while its operating expenses stood at N15.48 billion against N15.61 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2015.

The bank, during the period under review, reported an impairment charge of N8.81 billion compared to N6.47 billion in the same period in 2015.

Uzoma Dozie, the bank’s Chief Executive, said that the economic challenges witnessed in 2015 did not abate in the first quarter of 2016.

He said that the bank’s streams of income remained resilient and considerable growth was recorded in non-interest revenues.

“Our projection of the macro conditions and other external factors for the rest of the year is that these will remain challenging, and it has led to higher impairment charges than for the same period in 2015”.

He said that the bank’s continued success in spite of regulatory headwinds was hinged on implementing strategies that promoted sustainable growth and profitability in the long term.

He said that the bank would continue to introduce aggressive innovations, enhanced customer friendly services and retail banking strategy as strategic road map to sustainable growth and profitability.

This, he said, would enable the bank to focus on driving non-interest income and thereby strengthening explored opportunities to grow its market share.

“Diamond Bank’s focus remains on retail banking and providing convenient and easy banking to the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSME) segment,” Dozie said.

He said the bank would also focus on growing its corporate and mid-tier market segment even as the regulatory headwinds blowed tougher and rougher.

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