Civil society groups condemn President Goodluck Jonathan for appointing the Access Bank boss to investigate himself.
Civil society groups have condemned President Goodluck Jonathan for appointing Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Group Managing director of Access Bank, as chairman of the 15-man committee to verify and reconcile all claims made in the report of a Technical Committee set up to review fuel subsidy payments.
“That is an aberration, although it is common with this government,” said Olanrewaju Suraju, the head of a civil society group, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).
A company owned by Mr. Imoukhuede, Ice Energy Petroleum Trading Limited, was indicted by the House of Representatives committee which probed the fuel subsidy payments. The company received $2,131,166.32 (N345.3 million) in hard currency in 2011, without importing or supplying any product, the House report stated.
Ice Energy had failed to either appear or submit documents to the House committee. Following the insistence by many Nigerians that the House report be implemented, the Federal Government set up the Technical committee headed by Mr. Imoukhuede and subsequently, the new 15-man committee.
It’s all condemnation
The HEDA boss questioned the propriety of Mr. Jonathan’s decision to appoint the Access bank boss saying “how can any rational human being, a PhD holder for that matter make such appointment.”
He described the appointment by Mr. Jonathan and other actions and statements of the President as steps that are taking Nigeria backward.
“We’ve never had it so bad in Nigeria. President Jonathan is taking Nigeria to the lowest level that we have ever had in this country,” Mr. Suraju said
The coordinator of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, believes that by appointing Mr. Imoukhuede to “investigate himself,” the President has shown that he is not interested in the outcome of the probe.
“Jonathan is not really interested in the probes being carried out. He does not want such probe to succeed,” Mr. Adeniran said.
The CACOL boss described Mr. Imoukhuede’s appointment as a characteristic behaviuor of the President Jonathan’s administration.
“It is the stock-trade of this government to surround itself with indicted persons,” Mr. Adeniran said. “Innocent people will not want to work with a government that is constituted through a fraudulent means.”
Imoukhuede’s presence discredits report
Lagos lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, believes that the presence of Mr. Imoukhuede on both the technical committee and the 15-man panel has already discredited whatever report emanates from them.
“The report is discredited. How can somebody who has been indicted, who has not cleared his name preside over something like that,” Mr. Ogunye stated.
The lawyer stated that by choosing the bank boss to chair the committee, Mr. Jonathan had shown his unwillingness to prosecute indicted officials and companies in the fuel subsidy scam. He said it called to question the credibility of people around the President.
“It appears this government is in short supply of credible people,” Mr. Ogunye said.
Source: http://premiumtimesng.com/business/5975-Jonathan-under-fire-for-appointing-Aig-Imoukhuede-subsidy-verification-panel.html
Nigeria's top nine banks that featured in the Banker's top global 1000 banks 2012 have a combined tier one capital of $11.699 billion as against the $11.332 billion they had in last year's top 1000 banks. This showed a slight improvement in the tier one capital of the Nigerian banks.
However, the combined tier one capital of the nine banks is this time around slightly above the $9.842 billion of Standard Group of South Africa, the biggest bank in Africa and the 112th in the world. Standard Group's tier one capital dropped from last year's figure of $12.6 billion to this year's $9.8 billion. This fact is contained in the 2012 edition of The Banker magazine top 1000 global banks, a publication of Financial Times of London.
The Banker in its benchmarking of the top 1000 global bank said that Zenith Bank PLC had, as at 2011 financial year, a total tier one capital of $2.398 billion as against the $2.405 billion of last year. This makes Zenith Bank the biggest bank in Nigeria, the 7th in Africa and the 322nd in the world. It is followed by the first generation bank, First Bank, with a total of $2.262 billion in 2011 as against its last year's figure of $2.221 billion shareholders' stake in the bank known as tier one capital. First Bank occupies the 2nd position in the Nigerian banking sector, 8th in Africa and 338th in the globe.
The third highly capitalised bank in Nigeria by the standard of Bank of International Settlement (BIS) is GTBank with a tier one capital of $1.478 billion as against the $1.362 billion of 2010 financial year. By tier one capital ranking, it is Nigeria's 3rd biggest, 11th in Africa and 455th in the world. Access Bank followed closely with a capital of $1.054 billion as against the $1.149 billion it had last year making it the 4th largest bank in Nigeria, 15th in Africa and 541st universally.
United Bank for Africa (UBA), one of the oldest banks in the country, as at the 2011 financial year end had $1.003 billion compared to the $1.037 billion capital in 2010 making it one of the internationally recognised strong banks in the country. It is by this classification, the 5th largest bank in Nigeria, 16th in Africa and 563rd in the world. Fidelity is next with $867 million as against the $904 million tier one capital the previous year, making it the 6th biggest bank in Nigeria, 17th in Africa and 618th in the world. First City Monument Bank followed closely with $683 million compared to the $854 million capital base it had a year before. It thus becomes the 7th largest bank, 22nd in Africa and 710th in the world. Skye Bank has $665 million compared to $695 million it had previously to feature as the 721st top banks in the world, 24th in Africa and 8th in Nigeria.
However, the Nigerian banks did not rank among the top five in Africa. Zenith which is the most capitalised bank in the country ranks 7th as against its last year's 6th position in the continent. The top three banks in Africa are all from South Africa. Standard Bank Group topped the Africa chart with a capital base of $9.842 billion and is in the 112th position globally. The second is the FirstRand Bank Holdings, South Africa with a capital base of $8.471 billion. The Needbank Group Limited, also of South Africa, came third in the top 25 banks in Africa with a capital of $5.123 billion.
Attjariwafabank of Morocco, an Islamic Bank, is fourth with a capital base of $2.786 billion. Investec of South Africa came 5th in The Banker ranking of the top 25 banks in Africa with a capital base of $2.519 billion. According to The Banker, two Nigerian banks featured in the capital adequacy ratio measurement. Fidelity Bank, The Banker said, has a capital to asset ratio of 28.8 per cent, making it the soundest bank in the country. The report also said that First City Monument Bank with capital to asset ratio of 23.89 made it to the 1000 soundest capital to asset ratio banks in the world.
According to The Banker, going by the Bank of International Settlement measure, Zenith was the only Nigerian bank that attained the 1000 soundest BIS ratio of 36.
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