The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has vowed to ensure the prosecution of those responsible for the failure of Skye Bank.
Ahmed, who took over from Kemi Adeosun in September, made the pledge during a Friday courtesy visit to the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in Abuja.
She said the nation would no longer allow perpetrators of bank failures go scot-free.
The minister directed the Managing Director of NDIC, Umaru Ibrahim, to immediately launch an investigation into the cause of the failure and bring the perpetrators to book.
Ahmed said, “The example of the recently wound-up Skye Bank, now Polaris Bank is something we would look into. We would find out what happened. Your investigation must be thorough, we are going to hold whoever is responsible for the failure of that bank,” the minister said.
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“We have to show some examples, we can not just be bailing out banks and leaving perpetrators of the failure of these banks to just go scot-free. Even though you intervene by protecting depositors, but your intervention is limited. You’re not able to pay back all that the depositors have. We must show some examples and this is a good one for us to start with.”
The minister also urged the NDIC to step up its monitoring of banks in order to detect challenges on time and better help such banks.
“The role that you have in monitoring banks should be continuous, because if you capture these issues early, there is a better chance of us protecting these banks, protecting shareholders and depositors,” she stated.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on September 21 announced the revocation of Skye Bank’s licence.
The apex bank also revealed that a bridge bank, Polaris Bank, had been licensed to take over the assets and liabilities of the defunct bank.
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