Keystone Bank To Sell African Subsidiaries

Keystone Bank last
Friday disclosed plans to sell its subsidiaries in three African Countries due to capitalisation challenges contronting  the institution.
The countries are, Uganda, Sierra Leon and Liberia.
The Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer MD/CEO of the bank Mr Philip Ikeazor who made the disclosure in Lagos Friday said the bank does not have the capital to run the institution prior to when it acquired them.
Ikeazor attributed  the poor performance recorded by the African subsidiaries could not be supported by the parent company.
It would be recalled that Keystone Bank is wholly owned by the Asset Management corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
It was created through the bridge bank process and from the carcass of the defunct Bank PHB even as AMCON was in the process of divesting its ownership of the financial institution.
Continuing the keystone boss said “as you are aware, we had African subsidiaries which we had not had capital to run prior to when we took over the institution and those subsidiaries on their own had several challenges, including capitalization issues.
“While the parent company itself was required to recapitalise, we didn’t have capital to put in the subsidiaries so they were not performing very well.
“So the strategy is to divest because basically we have to focus on our core business in our main country”, he said.
He pointed out that keystone Bank has returned back to profitability in line with the move by AMCON to divest its ownership of the bank, adding that his team was assiduously working towards making the institution attractive to buyers.
According to him, keystone Bank has increased its footprints in terms of technology.
He said the bank has increased the number of ATMs and has also grown its card and internet banking business.
“We have also upgrated our contact centres. If you call our contact centres, they would take your issues in five different languages and you would have a much faster respond.

L-R:The World Bank,Communications Associate, Africa Strategic Communication, Mr Dele Oladokun, Lead Economist Nigeria Country Office, Mr John Litwack, Economist, Mrs Gloria Joseph-Raji and Senior Communication Specialist, World Bank, Mr. Obadiah Tohomdet, presenting the World Bank, Nigeria Economic Report in Abuja last Tuesday. Photo: NAN