Nigeria

Nigeria is seeking buyers for the assets of distressed state-owned former telecom monopoly Nitel, the state-appointed liquidator said on Monday, Reuters reported. Nigeria opted to wind up Nitel in March after almost a decade of struggling to sell it, due to the shambolic state of its fixed lines and high levels of debt, despite the country having one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets. The liquidator, appointed by the government's National Council of Privatisation, said in an advert it wanted bidders with five years of telecom experience and a net worth of at least $200 million.

Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has suspended the head of its central bank, removing an increasingly outspoken critic of the government's record on tackling rampant corruption, The Guardian reported. Lamido Sanusi, who was due to end his term as governor in June, had been presenting evidence to parliament he said showed the state oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to pay $20bn (£12bn) it owed to the government. The company has repeatedly denied his allegations.

The Asset Management Company of Nigeria, which holds non-performing assets of troubled banks, said it had named Citigroup and Africa-focused investment bank Vetiva Capital to manage the sale of its shares in one nationalized bank, Reuters reported yesterday. Nigeria fully nationalized Afribank, Spring Bank and Bank PHB in 2011 when they failed to find new investors before a recapitalization deadline. It then recapitalized them and changed their names to Mainstreet, Enterprise Bank and Keystone Bank, respectively.

Nigeria's state asset management company (AMCON) said it expects five of the nine banks that were bailed out for $4 billion to call extraordinary general meetings by Sept. 30, so shareholders can vote on recapitalisation deals signed with investors. AMCON Chief Executive, Mustapha Chike-Obi, told Reuters on Tuesday he expected shareholders to accept the deals. If they did not, regulators would need to explore all options to protect depositors, employees and the financial markets.

Nigeria's recently nationalised Mainstreet Bank, formerly Afribank, said on Tuesday it had paid the central bank back the 50 billion naira ($327 million) in intervention funding given in a 2009 bailout and the lender was now fully recapitalised, Reuters reported. The Nigerian central bank revoked the licences of Afribank, Spring Bank and Bank PHB on Friday because it said they did not show the necessary capacity to recapitalize following a $4 billion bailout of nine lenders in 2009.

The banking stock index on the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday fell by the highest margin this year as investors offloaded their shares, Punch reported. The NSE Banking Index, which measures the performance of the top 10 most capitalised stocks in the sub-sector, fell by 3.7 per cent at the close of trading, the highest percentage fall in eleven months. Analysts have linked the fall to a panic induced by last Friday’s nationalisation of three banks – BankPHB, Afribank and Spring Bank – by the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria on Saturday said it would inject N678.5bn into the three nationalised banks, whose licences were revoked on Friday by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Punch reported. AMCON said at a press conference in Lagos that by Monday, it would take over Spring Bank Plc, Afribank Plc and Bank PHB Plc and recapitalise them to the tune of N110.5bn, N285bn and N283bn respectively through the issuance of bonds in order to raise their capital adequacy ratio to 15 per cent.

Union Bank of Nigeria Plc has initiated a legal action before the Federal High Court in Lagos against four firms and their alter ego (promoter), Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, following the bank‘s claim that the defendants are owing it N22.55bn, Punch reported. The four firms are NICON Investment Limited, Global Fleet Oil and Gas Limited, Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation Plc, NICON Insurance Limited and Union Registrars Limited. The bank also joined the Corporate Affairs Commission as co-defendants to the suit. In an ex-parte application filed by its lawyer, Mr.

Two top Nigerian stock-exchange officials were removed and a fugitive former bank executive surrendered, as efforts to clean up the financial sector accelerate, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Thursday, Nigeria's Securities Exchange Commission named Emmanuel Ikazoboh, a former chief executive of accounting firm Deloitte in West and Central Africa, as interim stock-exchange head. The appointment comes a day after a shakeout at Nigeria's Stock Exchange, Africa's second largest.

Nigeria’s Security and Exchange Commission has instructed the nation’s bourse to remove Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke as director general and chief executive officer, Bloomberg reported. The move is among measures to address “inadequate oversight of the exchange, ongoing litigation, allegations of financial mismanagement, governance challenges, and the inordinate delays in the implementation of the succession plan,” the SEC said in an e-mailed statement.