Volume II, Issue 18

This week on the June 08, 2009 edition of Fortune&Class Weekly:

• FIRS bars ETB, Spring Bank, Wema Bank – The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has barred three banks from collecting taxes and other revenue due to the federal government on its behalf.

The banks, Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB), Spring Bank and Wema Bank were given the marching order because they refused to accede to the request by the FIRS to sign the mandatory collection agreement, a source in FIRS has confided in Fortune&Class.

According to the high level source in the revenue collection agency, the FIRS have had to introduce the mandatory collection agreement as a legal contract between it and financial institutions that desire to serve as collection agencies for it (FIRS). (read more)

Who Is In Charge Of The Stock Market? Daisy Ekine, SEC DG, Moves To Tame NSE DG, Okereke-Onyiuke

The demutualisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange has become the standard issue to determine the agency that wields ultimate authority and control on the Nigerian stock market. Simply put, demutualisation means that the Nigerian Stock Exchange transforms into the equivalence of a quoted company with its share available to the investing public for subscription and trading.

The imagination of the investing public had been excited since since October last year when  the Director-General of the NSE, Prof. (Mrs.) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke announced that there would be a demutualisation of the Exchange, announcing in the same breathe that she and seven senior officials of the NSE are to retire voluntarily.

According to the DG of the NSE, at a February 2009 press conference, the Council of the NSE had appointed Accenture, the global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company to help with the demutualization and transformation of the Exchange to become profit making, she explained at the press conference that “ we have to re-orientate and transform the management and staff (of the Exchange) to look at the Exchange as a profit making company like First Bank, Unilever, Japaul and even our own Central Securities Clearing System.” …

Bank Managers Divert Customers To Black Market Lenders

Chukwuma Soludo, fmr CBN Governor

Some branch managers of commercial banks in Nigeria have become lending authorities by themselves, a Fortune&Class investigation has revealed. The activities of these managers, according to the investigation, has led to the emergence and thriving of a black market for lending which, however, has become a source of worries and consternation for customers who are protesting how they are being exploited by the black market lenders.

For each bank branch, there is the unofficial lender, operated by the branch manager with the connivance of some other bank branch officials. When a customer approaches the branch with a request to raise fund for a business, the customer is as usual, confronted with a long list of requirements to be considered before loan application is approved. …

Agagu is Arrow-Head of SW 8, Wema Bank New Core Investor

Segun Oloketuyi, Olusegun Agagu

It has been reported that barring any unforeseen circumstance, Mr. Segun Oloketuyi, an executive director with Skye Bank, may soon be named as the new group managing director of Wema Bank Plc following the successful acquisition of 27 per cent controlling shares by new core investors, SW8 Consortium, in the bank.

Until recently, officials of the bank and regulatory agencies involved in the ownership structuring of banks in the country have decidedly kept sealed lips on the individuals and interests involved in the SW8 Consortium.

To sate the going curiosity of investors that desire to take position in the bank, Fortune&Class reveal that Dr. Olusegun Agagu, former governor of Ondo State is the arrow head of other mainly political personalities behind the SW8 Consortium.

Agagu served as Minister of Power in ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet between 1999 and 2003 and was elected Governor of Ondo State in 2003. Agagu re-election for a second term was, however, challenged this year by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko who eventually secured the rulings of both the election petition tribunal and the appeal court panel that asserted that Mimiko was the rightfully elected Governor of the State.

ADENUGA’S EXPATRIATE DIRECTOR RESIGNS FOR FEAR OF NIGER DELTA MILITANTS

Mr. Pandanam, an Indian expatriate who holds a high ranking office in Dr. Mike Adenuga (Jnr) Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) was not intended on leaving Nigeria in a hurry. The Indian, who, until he left Nigeria in a hurry, was the bank’s Regional Services Director, decided to bid farewell to his job at ETB when he was posted to the Port Harcourt office of the bank.

Inside sources in ETB informed FORTUNE&CLASS Weekly that the expatriate was shocked by the posting to a city which he claimed is the hotbed of militant activities in the Niger Delta. The sources further confided that Pandamanam made strenuous efforts to appeal to the management of the bank to reconsider the decision to post him to Port Harcourt.

“We even heard that he made efforts to get Otunba Adenuga to persuade the management to rescind the decision on account of the risks an expatriate working in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is exposed.” A source said. “He also argued that he did not have the millions of naira kidnappers in the Niger Delta region are likely to demand for and, as such, he should be saved from the imminent danger he will be exposed to by the transfer to work in Port Harcourt.” The source explained.

Nobody was, however, persuaded with the pleas of the expatriate: “The management had the backing of Otunba on the posting and it was affirmed to him again that he should proceed to resume in Port Harcourt. But when he realized he could not convince anybody in the top hierarchy of the bank’s management, he tendered his resignation and left the service of the bank. I understand he packed his belongings and moved out of the country.” The source added.