Posted by 9jabook.com on January 20, 2010 at 10:04pm
The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on Monday made good his threat to wrest banks from proprietors as the board of the banking regulator has pegged the maximum tenure of commercial banks’ managing directors/chief executives at 10 years.
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Those who have already spent 10 years or more are to quit by July 2010 – meaning the Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia, Managing Director, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu, and his counterpart at Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Akinsola Akinfemiwa, will have to relinquish their positions soon. They have spent between 11 and 19 years as chief executives of their respective banks.
Addressing newsmen on the latest development, CBN’s Director of Bank Supervision, Mr. Sam Oni, explained that the policy was designed to enthrone good corporate governance in the banking sector and institutionalise the arrangement of appointment of CEOs in banks.
He pointed out that the policy guideline was geared towards ensuring that banks put in place a good succession plan and avoiding the personalisation of institutions.
He said that even after the bank chief executive that has served a 10-year tenure must have left, he could only take up an appointment with the bank or any of its subsidiaries only after three years of his exit.
“Chief executive officers of banks shall henceforth serve a maximum of 10 years; All CEOs that would have served for 10 years by July 2010 shall cease to function in that capacity and shall hand over to their successors; Where a bank is a product of a merger, acquisition or takeover or any other form of combination, the 10 years shall include the pre and post combination service years of a CEO, provided the bank, which he served as a CEO was part of the new banks that emerged after the combination; Any person that has served as CEO for the maximum tenure in a bank shall not qualify for an appointment in that bank or its subsidiary until after a period of three years of his exit as CEOs,” he said.
Oni said given the new policy, affected bank chief executives are to draw up their succession plan towards their exit and institute a credible succession programme that would be approved by the board. Such, he added, would also be supervised and monitored by the CBN.
He said: “By July 31, 2010, the affected chief executives are to prepare a succession as approved by their board and to have a credible succession programme that will be monitored by the board and therefore subjected to some kind of supervision and monitoring by the CBN.”
Furthermore, he said: “All banks shall reflect the provisions of this guideline in the terms of engagement of their CEOs.
“In terms of the appointment of the CEOs of banks, the condition and terms under which they are appointed and approved by the board must also be ratified and approved at the Annual General Meeting. Such terms of appointment in the first instance shall not exceed five years and of course it’s renewable for another term provided that the period of service cumulative does not exceed 10 years.”
It has also emerged from the new policy of the banking watchdog that the CBN governor, his deputies as well as managing director/chief executives of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) could be appointed into a bank or any of its subsidiaries, only five years after his exit from respective positions in CBN and NDIC.
Oni said: “The governor, deputy governors of the CBN and the managing director/CEO and the executive director of NDIC, shall not be eligible for appointment in any capacity in banks and their subsidiaries under the supervision of the CBN and NDIC until after the expiration of five years from the date of their exit from the CBN or NDIC as the case may be.”
Similarly, he said: “The departmental directors of the CBN and that of the NDIC shall not be eligible for appointment in any capacity in banks and their subsidiaries under the supervision of the CBN and NDIC until after the expiration of three years from the date of their exit from either the CBN or NDIC.”
Earlier, during the briefing on the outcome of the Bankers’ Committee, Oni disclosed that the CBN had last Monday rolled out the minimum information disclosure for banks for the preparation of their account beginning with 2009 financial year.
This, he said, was with the view to ensuring that the banking system is effectively supervised.
According to him, the CBN had left the negotiation and sales/recapitalisation of the eight rescued banks to the banks’ management and boards.
He said following the meeting held with the management and key shareholders of the rescued banks last week, it was unanimously agreed that the apex bank should allow the boards and management of the affected banks to negotiate the sales/recapitalisation of their institutions.
Stressing that the CBN would only be a facilitator in the whole process, Oni recalled that the apex bank had appointed financial advisors for the rescued banks to commence the process of their recapitalisation.
The Bankers’ Committee comprising banks’ and other financial institutions managing directors and key CBN officials he also said, resolved that starting this financial year, the commercial banks would commence a longer tenure lending as part of efforts to assist the Federal and state governments in the resuscitation of infrastructure, which continues to pose a major challenge to Nigeria’s quest for development.
The Committee, he said, had therefore identified areas where banks would intervene to include small and medium enterprises (SMEs), power and agriculture.
Managing Director/Chief Executive of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, who spoke alongside his counterparts at FinBank, Mrs. Susan Iroche; Standard-IBTCBank; Chris Newson; and Kakawa Discount House Limited, Mr. Laoye Jaiyeola, disclosed that arrangements on the financing model had been finalised .
He said the committee would meet and consult with agencies of the Federal Government and State Governments on ways to remove bottlenecks associated with projects and make them bankable.
Aig-Imokhuede said banks would this year embark on the development of bond instrument from where financial resources for longer credit facility for the infrastructure and real sector resuscitation would be realised.
This, he said, would enablethe banks to make longer tenure lending from seven to 20 years.
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