Experts Commend CBN Over Distressed Banks Handover

Some financial experts have commended plans by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to hand over some of the distressed banks to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in September.

They said that the handing over of the banks to AMCON would protect depositors’ interests in the banks.

The CBN, last week, said that it would hand over to AMCON any of the distressed banks that failed to recapitalise by September.

Mr Eddie Osarenkhoe, President of Finance Houses Association of Nigeria (FHAN), said that the CBN’s decision would reduce pressure on the management of the affected banks on recapitalisatiion.

Osarenkhoe said that the new gesture of the CBN would help to protect shareholders’ and depositors’ funds and bring the banks on track.

“It is a welcome idea because it will resolve the conflicts between the management of the rescued banks and their shareholders,” he said.

Dr Tunde Adeoye, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said that the CBN’s gesture would ensure sanity in the industry.

“The CBN decision portends good as long as the whole process of recapitalisation will be transparent and the crisis between management of the trouble banks and their shareholders will come to an end,” he said.

Adeoye advised the apex bank to carry shareholders along in the recapitalisation exercise.

Mr Kunle Fatokun, retired Civil Servant and a shareholder in one the banks, urged the CBN to extend the September deadline for the troubled banks to recapitalise.

He said that the troubled banks had step up efforts to source for funds to recapitalise and that the extension would afford the banks more time to put things right.