Business

Reps order CBN to suspend Polaris Bank’s sale

The House of Representatives has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to immediately suspend the sale of Polaris Bank Plc.

The House said the suspension should be until the CBN deposit Insurance Corporation and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria concluded all processes for an open, transparent, and competitive bid process.

The House said this should be in line with best practice and procedure for divestment of this nature.

The latest development followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by Henry Nwauba (APGA-Imo) at the plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.

Nwauba said public attention had been drawn through a circulation currently on social media in respect of the proposed sale of Polaris Bank for N40 billion.

The lawmaker stated that there was a need to ensure that the divestment in the bank did not jeopardise the core reason for the CBN intervention in the bank in the overall public interest.

He added that the divestment should be done most transparently following the required due process.

Nwauba said this was necessary to avert public outcry and untoward reaction from critical stakeholders in the economy, foreign business partners banking community, depositors, and correspondent banks.

He added that it was crucial to avoid the shortcomings of the previous similar exercise undertaken in the past.

The lawmaker said Polaris Bank was borne out of the bailout of the defunct Skye bank Plc which failed due to poor corporate governance and non-performing loan.

This, he said, was for which close to a trillion naira of public funds was committed to resuscitating the bank.

Nwauba stated that the proposed sale was shrouded in secrecy and was opaque and required that it was done in transparency and accountability to eliminate insinuations of corruption.

He said the transited defunct Skye Bank was a systemically important Bank with a large pool of employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

He said the bank without a bailout would have had a serious contagion effect on the economy and global perception/reputation.

The House, therefore, set up an Ad hoc Committee to within 20 days, review the total outlay by the Federal Government in Polaris Bank and account for the entire financial input in the bank by the government.

The House said this should be through CBN, NDIC, and AMCON to determine whether the conditions and terms of sale were likely to ensure positive return on public funds thus far committed to the bank, whether as bailout funds or other investments.

The House urged the committee to take action necessary to ensure that the public funds committed to Polaris Bank were appropriately documented and accounted for.

The Star