The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has
affirmed its confidence in Skye Bank
Plc., through a guarantee line, which
ensures that withdrawals it suffered in
the wake of the undue panic recently
does not adversely affect its operations.
This development, analysts believe, lends
credence to the regulator’s earlier
assertion that Skye Bank is a
Strategically Important Bank (SIB), with
substantial market share,
interconnectedness and significant
relevance to the nation’s financial
systems stability.
A leading international news organisation,
Bloomberg, reports that the apex bank
confirmed this development through a
statement by the CBN spokesman, Isaac
Okoroafor, who said the undisclosed
guarantee sum would assist the bank to
shore up its liquidity and maintain its
level of operations.
“The short-term lending facility will allow
the management of the bank to ensure
that some withdrawals it suffered in the
wake of the undue panic recently do not
adversely affect its operations,”
Okoroafor said.
In addition, “the CBN issued guarantees
to depositors and creditors of Skye Bank
as a demonstration of the bank’s health,”
Okoroafor further explained.
The guarantee line is coming on the
heels of CBN’s recent intervention in the
bank following the voluntary resignation
of the Board of Directors of the bank and
the consequent re-constitution of the
board with a new management team led
by Mr. M. K. Ahmad and Mr. Adetokunbo
Abiru, who emerged as Chairman and
Group Managing Director respectively.
The CBN guarantee will not only enhance
Skye Bank’s interbank trading and
activities but also provide assurance to
other banks to continue to deal with and
trade with its instruments in the
interbank market.
The CBN had similarly introduced a bank
credit guarantee package for some banks
in 2009 in the wake of the global
economic crisis, which affected both the
local and global financial markets.
The bank guarantee programme enables
financial institutions to meet their
financing needs during a period of record
high credit spreads and aids the
successful return of the credit market to
near normalcy, despite the recession and
slow economic recovery.
The affirmation of confidence in Skye
Bank continues to grow as no fewer than
two state governments have expressed
confidence in the bank’s ability to deliver
on crucial mandates in the last two
weeks. First, it was the Lagos State
government, which directed its Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to
establish business relationship with the
bank on account of its track record and
pedigree in mandate execution.
“We had earlier reported that on Monday,
July 18, 2016, the Kogi State government
re-appointed Skye Bank as lead
collecting bank for its Internally
Generated Revenue (IGR) and services.
The appointment ensures that the bank
is responsible for collecting all its
revenue just as other agent banks are
required to pay their collections to Skye
Bank on behalf of the state government.”
Sunnews
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